One Step Aside
by szynka2496
Summary: That moment when you thought your life was 'normal' again and then one day you bump into a person again and it turns out, he's the new soon-to-be Spider-Man. And despite your effort to stay out of trouble, you still somehow get dragged into a new mess. Someone please kill me? Signed Jackie Walker. SEQUEL TO 'ONE STEP AHEAD'. Rated T because of language and other stuff...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello and welcome to the sequel of 'One Step Ahead' :D It plays good six weeks after what happened in Avengers and goes straight to The Amazing Spider Man. I saw the movie and and fell in love with Peter Parker. **

**If you haven't read 'One Step Ahead' yet, I recommend to read it, otherwise some things may be confusing, if you don't feel like reading it, then feel free to ask, I'll try my best to explain everything.  
**

**Basically it's about my OC Jackie Walker, how she somehow ended up in the Marvel universe et cetera. Go figure. **

**Oh yeah, and the Avengers are making an appearance in this story too, for I don't know, more development in their relationship to Jackie maybe? Anyway, I didn't put it into the cross over section because well, I can :P**

**Please note that English isn't my first language, therefor there will be grammar and spelling mistakes.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

**P.S.: I beat Dream Drop Distance with 26 hours playtime ... xD**

* * *

Chapter I

Sunny Weather With A Sudden Visit From The Clouds

„_Five, four, three, two, one. Ready or not, here I come... Dad! Dad!"_

oOo

"_You're gonna stay with your Aunt May and Uncle Ben for a little while."_

"_I wanna go with you."_

"_Come on."_

"_Dad?"_

"_Be good."_

oOoOoOo

Lately I've dev eloped the habit to describe things by using the weather. I blame it on that storm six weeks ago. Well, I _think_ it was six weeks ago, but honestly, it was during summer vacation and I don't keep track of time during those holy eight weeks of no school.

My name is Jacqueline Walker, short Jackie. Call me by my full name (plus middle name) and you're dead.

Ahem.

Six weeks ago, my life got turned upside down.

Six weeks ago, I had the time of my life.

Six weeks ago, I was basically pulled into a movie. 'Avengers' to be more precisely. At first I thought it was going to be the usual self-insert stories: Pulled into a movie, meets the heroes, few ups and downs, falls in love with their favorite character, get married and live happily ever after.

Well, the first three statements were true, after that it was just bullshit. I didn't fall for anyone, no one fell for me (and strangely I'm really glad about that), and I – almost- have my old life back. Except that I'm stuck in this movie universe for the rest of my pitiful short life.

By the way, Steve Rogers aka Captain America is my neighbor. Just wanted to mention that and rub it into some fangirls faces. Hehehehe.

Like I said, six weeks ago I got pulled into the movie 'Avengers'.

Or so I thought. Well, turns out I actually got pulled into the whole Marvel universe. It was clear when a week ago Nick Fury sauntered into my home and handed me files from a certain Richard Parker. Obvious that it was Spider-Man's daddy. Eye Patch wanted to get some information SHIELD may didn't have through me, because of this whole I'm-from-another-dimension/universe-and-I-know-almost-everything-that-you-don't-know-thing. To be honest, I wasn't a big help because I didn't really know anything about Spider-Man's old man.

"Miss, your photos are all developed." A voice suddenly said, interrupting my train of thought.

Right now I'm in a photo shop to develop the photos Steve took during one of our trips through New York City. I promised him to do that since he's too busy with training or something like that. I barely get to see him these days. Makes me wonder if he's still alive.

"Thanks." I said, took the envelope with the photos, paid the price and stepped out of the shop.

On my way back home I took out the photos and carefully looked through them. Most of them are from old buildings that are still from the Second World War time.

You know how people always say that you shouldn't read or look at anything while walking and always keep your eyes open? Yeah, I should have listened to them. The next thing I knew was that I bumped into some guy on a skateboard.

"Oh fuck!" I yelled and dropped the photos. They were all scattered on the ground. Next to it was a camera. It didn't belong to me, so I assumed it belongs to my bumper.

I quickly kneeled down and collected the photos, while the guy was still sitting on the ground. He flew down from his skateboard due to the small impact.

"I'm sorry; I wasn't watching where I was going!" I apologized, putting the photos back into the envelope, picked up the camera and turned to the guy. He rubbed his neck, wincing slightly.

I held out a hand, which he took gratefully and helped him up. The boy stood good a head taller than me, but then again I'm not exactly the tallest here. He had short brown hair, that looked pretty much unkempt, and brown eyes. Somehow his face looked really familiar, but I couldn't quite put my fingers on from where…

"Thanks." He muttered under his breath.

I realized that I still had his camera. I took a closer look on it, and saw that there was his name written on it, along with an address. Peter Parker.

Hang on a sec.

"Peter Parker?!" I half shouted half wondered and then looked back at the guy, whose face looked slightly worried at my sudden outburst.

"You are Peter Parker?" I asked, having a hard time believing it "Holy _shit_, when did you become so _attractive_?"

"Uh, excuse me?" Peter Parker said, turning a bit red "Do I know you?"

It took me a small moment to process what I said, and then afterwards I just wished the ground below me would open up and I would fall down. Why does my tongue always have to be quicker than my brain? I swear someday it's going to be a death to me.

"I uh, have to go now!" I stuttered out and then quickly dashed off, not even looking back once. I think I heard him shouting 'Wait!', but I was too embarrassed to turn back, and when I was sure I was far away now I realized why he shouted after me.

I still had his camera.

Oh great. I really don't want to go back now just to give him his stupid camera back. Eh, I'll just give it back to Peter some time later. When I figured out where he lives and which school he attends.

I opened the door to my apartment and took off my shoes. While doing that, my mind wandered back to Peter Parker. Now, I admit that I have a short time memory, but I'm sure that Peter Parker had a different face. Unless… Oh right, I forgot, there was going to be a new Spider-Man movie out. Sadly I won't be able to watch it now since I'm basically living in that universe. And I guess that guy is the new Spider-Man. No wonder he seemed so familiar. Did he already get bitten by a spider?

I just realized that I somehow have the talent to meet new interesting people by bumping into them. Just like that time when I bumped into Steve Rogers and thought he was Chris Evans. And the next day I bumped into him again. And then shit happens.

Well, I have the feeling that this time shit is going to happen again. Me bumping into Peter Parker just proved my point. And now that I have his camera just means I should get my ass out of here and meet him again. Well, I could just keep it, but that would be thievery and with my luck I might just bump into him somehow again if I decided to get out of his way.

I let out a sigh and slumped down into my couch. Taking a closer look at the camera, I carefully inspected every inch of it. On the downside, there was a small white piece of paper sticking on it.

'Property of Peter Parker, Midtown Science High School'.

If I was Peter, I would have written my home address down, not my school. Ah well, at least I know where to start to look for him.

oOoOoOo

"_Agent, what is Jacqueline Walker doing?"_

"_She went into a photo shop and let some photos developed, Director."_

"_Mhm."_

"_She then bumped into a boy. It seems like she knew who he was, but the boy doesn't know her."_

"_Who is that boy?"_

"_Peter Parker."_

"_Peter Parker? Son of Richard Parker?"_

"_Yes, Sir."_

"… _Keep watching her. I have a feeling that this is going to turn out to be very interesting. Perhaps Walker can still get us information."_

"_Understood, Director Fury."_

* * *

**So yeah, that's the first chapter, not much to say about it :P **_  
_

**review please :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Howdy guys! Here I am, back with another chapter. Thanks for all the reviews, faves and alerts :D**

**I don't want to let things go too quickly, so in this and future chapters there may be things that has got absolutely nothing to do with the story. **

**By the way, there is a special guest appearance in this chapter, so yeah, enjoy :P**

**Please note that English isn't my first language, therefor there will be grammar and spelling mistakes.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker.**

* * *

Chapter II

Short-Lived Heavy Rain And Sunshine Afterwards

„_Hey, it's uh... Peter, right?"_

"_Mhm."_

"_I really like your photos."_

"_Oh, thanks."_

"_Uh… Listen, are you busy Friday night?"_

"_Uh no…."_

"_Cool! Uh… Can you take pictures of my boyfriend's car? I just, you know, I really wanna frame a good one for his birthday."_

"_That's really nice of you. Wow, that's such a nice thought. Um… Yeah, I'll have a look at the old uh… The old schedule."_

"_Okay."_

oOoOoOo

It's Monday, which means that I have P.E. lessons after lunch break. But alas I hate P.E. with a great passion for no reasons, therefore I'm skipping class. Funny how I always regretted not going to this class when I was in life-death situations and yet I keep skipping it. And school has barely started yet.

Oh well, just this one last time.

Armed with my iPhone, school bag, and a small bag with Peter's camera, I took a bus to the borough Queen to Midtown Science High School. It wasn't too difficult to find out where exactly the school was, thanks to Google searching machine and Google maps.

After few searching and asking for directions (my sense for direction hasn't improved a bit) I finally found the school. A science school. I mentally blahed at it. I hate science; I would never even attend to a school extra for science willingly. English class and few other language classes are okay, but science and math? Over my dead body. Of course the best classes are still music and art.

Guessing from all the students in the front yard they are currently having lunch break right now. From far away I could already see a crowd of students standing there, shouting something about 'Go Flash!'. Hm, it sounds like a fight to me.

Not my school, not my problem. Better get out of their way and look straight for Peter Parker. I passed a blonde girl with a ponytail sitting there when I suddenly heard how one person from the crowd shouted: "Come on! Get up, Parker!"

I stopped walking and tried to stand on my feet to see what exactly is happening, though I couldn't see much. Annoyed I pushed my way through the crowd and saw that Peter Parker and another guy were the attention of the crowd.

Peter tried to punch the other guy (not the Hulk, mind you), but he easily dodged it and punched Peter in the stomach. Hard. Peter went down to the ground, clutching his stomach, groaning in pain.

I'm randomly guessing that since he couldn't even throw a punch Parker didn't get bitten by a spider yet.

"Get up! Come on! Come on!" The guy mocked and then kicked him in the stomach again. Peter doubled over in pain.

Just looking at him on the ground makes me feel the pain too.

Trying to catch his breath, Peter stammered out: "I'm still not taking the picture."

What picture? Dude, I have your camera, you can't take any pictures.

Worried about him I looked around to see if there is anyone who would help him or at least something I could do. Few meters away I spotted a basket ball.

Hm, why not?

"Stay down, Parker!" The bully shouted at the lying Peter on the ground, and then turned to the crowd of students who were screaming for his victory "Who wants one more! Huh? Huh?"

I took a few steps back, then run and kicked the ball. It flew and hit the back of his head. I grinned in triumph, proud that I still can kick a ball properly, but it quickly disappeared when the guy turned around and gave me death glares. If looks could kill…

"So you kicked the ball, huh?!" He said and slowly sauntered toward me. I shrunk back slightly and took a step back, trying to get away. He pressed his knuckles. A loud cracking noise could be heard, making me flinch slightly. The bully looked at me with narrowed eyes, but then they widened. "Hey, you're that chick with those freaks from the Manhattan incident weeks ago."

Some student started to whisper. I just stood there with a big question mark on my face. Manhattan inci... Oh, that. Did he see me that time? Hm, it could be, there were lots of people that time. I for my part have to say that of course I have never seen him before.

"But that doesn't mean you can walk around and play the heroine, you know?"

Just when I was thinking about making a dash for it, the blond girl with the ponytail walked in between me and that guy and said in a calm voice: "Flash! Flash, are we still on for after school today? My house, three thirty? I hope you've been doing your homework. Last time I was very disappointed in you."

Are they dating? Why do the nice and pretty girls always get stuck with the asshole? And oh, the bully's name is Flash. Hm, can't say that I remember him from the previous Spider-Man movies.

"Okay, listen…" Flash started but was quickly interrupted by the blonde girl.

"No, Flash, how about we got to class, hm? How about it?"

In defeat, he said: "Whatever." Flash turned around and walked back into the building, so did the other students until it was only me, Peter and that girl on the school yard.

I turned to the girl and offered her a smile. "Thanks for saving me from that gorilla."

"You're welcome." She replied and returned the smile "That was a great kick, totally hit its goal. I haven't seen you here before, are you new?" She looked at me from head to toe. I felt slightly uncomfortable under her gaze.

"Me? Oh no, I go to school in Manhattan. I'm actually skipping P.E. class because I hate it plus there is something I need to give to that guy." I pointed at Peter who was trying to get up from the ground, still clutching his stomach.

"Oh okay, then will you take care of him? I have to go back to class now." She said and then walked off, but not before she gave me a last look "Have I seen you somewhere before? You seem familiar…"

I raised an eyebrow. "No I don't think so… Manhattan incident maybe?" I offered her, referring to what that gorilla said about me. I'm slightly getting worried about that.

She then shrugged and walked into the building. What was that all about? I seem familiar to her? I'm sure that I have never met her before in my life. That definitely was not Mary-Jane, because I remember Spider-Man's love interest being a red head, not blonde. But there was another one, wasn't there? What was her name again? Something with G I think...

A groan brought me back to reality. I quickly ran to Peter Parker, brought one of his arms over my shoulder and lead him to a bench and made him sit down there.

"Thanks." He muttered and then looked up to me, eyes widen slightly. He recognized me, but didn't say anything yet.

"You're welcome. Care to share what that was all about?" I asked, motioning at the place where the crowd stood before and where he got beaten up.

"Nothing, Flash Thompson just wanted me to take a picture, but I refused and told him I didn't have my camera with me. He didn't believe me though."

I felt slightly guilty now, because I had his camera. He probably wouldn't get beaten up if he still had his camera with him. Or he still would.

"Well, that was brave of you." I commented lamely and stared at everything but Peter.

"Which reminds me, you have my camera." He reminded me in a half serious half joking tone.

I hold up the SEPHORA bag with his camera in it. "Sorry. I ran away that time because… Uh well…"

How do I explain to him that I ran away because I recognized him as the soon-to-be Spider-Man and almost went into fangirl modus? The next thing Peter said wasn't helping me either.

"Because you couldn't handle my attractiveness?" Despite the pain Peter managed to crack a small joke, reminding me about that embarrassing thing I said to him that day.

"Do you want me to smash your camera against the ground?" I asked threateningly.

He put his hands up in a defensive manner and took the bag. Taking out his camera, he examined it to see if there was even one single scratch.

I rolled my eyes and said: "Don't worry; I didn't look into it or anything."

Peter gave me a mocking, I-don't-believe-you-look and slung the camera over his neck.

"Thanks for coming all the way here just to give it back to me. Normally people don't do that."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Uhm, don't you have class now?" I nodded toward the school building.

"Don't you have_ school_ right now?" Peter retorted back.

"I'm skipping class." I said like it's the most obvious thing in the world "But I think I should go now. See you!"

I walked out of the school yard, but not before Peter stopped me for a last time. "Wait, what's your name?"

I stood there for a while, looking at him with a raised eyebrow, and then replied: "It's Jackie Walker."

For a second I was blinded by a light, and before I knew what happened, Peter took a photo of me. I stood there dumbfounded, while he simply smirked, waved at me and then walked back into the school building. I stood in the same spot for another few seconds, wondering why the hell he took a photo of me. I don't like it when people take photos of me, without asking me first.

Shaking my head I finally walked away from Midtown Science High School. I gave Peter his camera back, I'm done with him. Unless some sort of miracle happens I don't think I'll see him again soon. Well, maybe hear from him as Spider-Man, but that's it.

oOoOoOo

"_I thought that was great, what you did back there. It was stupid, but it was great. You should go to the nurse, you might have a concussion. What's your name?"_

"_You don't know my name?"_

"_No, I know your name. I just wanna know if you know your name."_

"_Peter… Parker. Peter Parker."_

"_Okay, good… I'd still go to the nurse though."_

"_You're Gwen, right?"_

"_Gwen Stacy. So, that girl from earlier, I think she was looking for you."_

"_Yeah, I know."_

_"She saved you from Flash. Kicked the basketball and it hit his head."_

"_Oh, really?"_

"_Hm, perhaps you _do_ have a concussion."_

oOoOoOo

"Where have you been?" A worried Steve Rogers asked. He was leaning against my kitchen counter.

"Nice to see you too, after you suddenly disappeared for a week." I replied, opening my bag and took out my homework.

"I was going to pick out up after school, since lately the streets aren't save anymore, but you weren't there." He said and took a bite into an apple.

"There was something I needed to do."

"So you skipped P.E. class?" Steve asked.

I pressed my lips into a thin line. Damn. Straight caught by him. Should I tell him the truth or just lie to him. But it's really hard to lie to Steve (not that I'm a good liar anyway). He always has that really not describe able gaze when you tell him something and he doesn't believe you. It makes you uncomfortable and then you'll just spit out the truth anyway.

"I went to Midtown Science High School in Queen because I had something that belonged to someone else and I gave it back to him." I told him truthfully and opened my textbook.

"Back to _him_? A guy?" Steve asked and threw the apple away.

Don't you dare go all overprotective now.

"Yeah, a guy, found him being beaten up by a bully." I explained and saw how Steve's brows furrowed. He didn't like bullies. From what I remember Steve was bullied too when he was young. "I then kicked a basketball and it hit the bully's head. Oh yeah, and he said that he saw me in Manhattan that day, you know, where the Chitauri force came?"

Steve nodded, but didn't comment it any further. I turned back to my homework, typing something into the calculator. Am I the only person on Earth who is still waiting for the day where I'm going to have use of the binomial formulas? Math teachers always say that you will need it later in your life and blah blah blah, but seriously, even my German teacher said the she never got use of it after school.

"I'll go back to my apartment now. If there's something, just knock." Steve said and walked out of the door.

"Will do." I replied and silently laughed at Steve's confused face when he was trying to use his new cell phone.

oOoOoOo

"_Director Fury, Walker returned the camera to Parker."_

"_Good. Is the tracking device working?"_

"_Yes Sir. It's online now."_

"_Did she suspect anything?"_

"_No Sir. She didn't notice that an agent sneaked into her home and planted the tracking device into the camera."_

"_Well done. Now, let the tracking begin. Let's see what we can find out through the Parker boy and Jacqueline Walker."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Ugh, summer job is killing me -.-; **

**Anyway, an update :D **

**So, I think that since that alien invasion in Manhattan was pretty HUGE thing, surely there must also be lots of people there to watch Thor and Loki's depature... For the sake of this story, that's the case :P**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

**Oh yeah, just curios: How much do you ship Jackie with Loki (due the previous story), how much with Peter? :D **

* * *

Chapter III

Cloudy And Cloudier

„_I think it's a condenser tray."_

"_No, too much water for the condenser tray or the heat exchange tubing. This has gotta be the filling."_

"_That's the only thing that makes sense then. Can you fix it?"_

"_No, not tonight. I'll go by the hardware store tomorrow."_

"_Good deal. Meanwhile, put this on your face… How does the other guy look? … Come on! I know a right cross when I see one. Yes or no? Or do I have to call somebody's father."_

"_No, no."_

"_I wouldn't tell your Aunt May. I'd pity the poor kid who'd have to suffer her wrath… Hey, before you come up, see if there's anything else worth saving."_

"_Yeah…"_

oOo

"_What is this? … Zero, zero, Decay Rate Algorithm… Yeah, one sec! One sec! … Come in."_

"_You okay?"_

"_Yeah, what's up?"_

"_Oh my God! You look just like him. May I come in?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Listen, uhm… I don't have much educations, you know, Peter. Hell, I stopped being able to help with your homework when you were ten. What I'm trying to say is, I know it's been rough for you without your dad. And I know we don't talk much about them."_

"_Yeah, it's fine."_

"_No, it is not alright. I wish I could change it, but I can't… Curt Connors, that's the name of the guy in the picture with your dad. They worked together for years and they were close, but after that night we never saw him again. He never even called, not once. Go figure… That girl on your computer screen, does she go to your class?"_

"_Uh no, no. I just met her few times."_

"_She was on the TV and newspaper few weeks ago, where they showed those super heroes saying goodbye to a super villain in Central Park. I think she even gave him a hug."_

"_Oh really? She was involved in the whole Manhattan incident?"_

"_Mhm. She's pretty. You should invite her over for dinner."_

"_Uh yeah, if I ever see her again. Uncle Ben?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_You're a pretty great dad, alright?"_

oOoOoOo

I wasn't expecting to come back to Stark's tower ever. Thinking of this cursed place makes me remember how I couldn't feel my legs that time when I had to go down the fire stairs from the top to the bottom.

Uncle Tony (no he's not my real uncle, I just call him that because it sounds cool) invited the Avengers including me to a dinner in his tower. I thought it was weird that I got invited too, since I haven't really done much to save the world. Tony said something about me being their 'mascot' and that he has to talk to me about Steve Rogers later. Hm, could be those rumors in the fandom about Tony and Steve be true? Do they really have a thing for each other?

Sadly Thor wasn't here. Oh well, at least he got to eat shawarma with the others, whatever the hell that thing was. While thinking of Thor, my mind wandered to Loki… Hm, I wonder how he' doing right now. Is he still facing his punishment? What is it anyway? I really hope those Asgardians aren't so old fashioned anymore and would at least come up with a… Softer punishment.

I started to play with my food.

"A drink, JayJay?" Tony asked and holds up a glass champagne.

I gave him a dirty look. "We had this conversation before. I don't drink alcohol."

"If you say so." He said and drunk the champagne with one sip. "You were thinking about someone, weren't you?"

I nodded. Tony scooted a bit closer with his chair. "So tell me, who's that boy? Should I have JARVIS check out his files?"

I rolled my eyes. "Not necessary. No, I was just thinking about Loki."

Saying his name everybody tensed up and looked at me. I shouldn't have said that.

"Well, that unexpected. Although, you did give him a goodbye huh." Bruce who hadn't said anything for a while, commented and took a bite from his broccoli.

"Why did you do that?" Clint, who was sitting next to Natasha, asked.

I shrugged and replied: "It was on my to-do-before-I-die-list, give Loki a hug."

Birdy gave me a I-don't-believe-you-look and continued to eat his food.

"This was all over the news. You are basically famous. Good chances that everyone knows about you. I'm surprised that no one has openly talked to you on the streets yet." Natasha said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Famous? Just because I gave him a hug?" I didn't even know there were people filming Thor's farewell time in Central Park. That just proves I really need to pay more attention.

"You gave a _God_ who was trying to take over Earth a hug." She corrected me "It may have left some wrong impressions on the citizens now. I don't know, maybe they are scared of you, that's why they leave you alone."

Or it's because I don't go out so much, therefore I'm always the last person who finds out something. No wonder few people gave me dirty looks when I passed them by. At least in my school people still talk to me.

The others have it good. Tony is already famous, so it doesn't matter if his fan clubs get more members; Steve is only known as Captain America and therefore can go out to the streets without being recognized. Thor is in Asgard, Bruce well, I'm not sure if people know he's the Hulk, and Natasha and Clint are top assassins who are most likely busy with missions.

I sighed annoyed and violently stabbed a piece of broccoli and cut it into tiny pieces.

"Wasn't there something you wanted to give Jackie, Stark?" Steve asked. I perked up.

"Oh right, almost forgot. Thanks for reminding me, American Boy." Iron Man said and grabbed into his pocket.

Tony has got something for me? Oh my God, is it maybe a new flat screen TV? Nah, it doesn't fit into his pocket. Maybe a plane ticket to Venice, I love that city. Or a car key, 'cause I really want to have a Corvette Stingray. Or better, tickets for the Coke festival in Poland? Far away, but I have friends there, so it doesn't matter.

"Here." He took out a letter and handed it to me.

Excited like a child opening its Christmas present I opened the letter and read it carefully.

'Dear Jacqueline Walker,

We are happy to inform you that you are one of the twenty-four students who have the honor to do an one-day internship in Dr. Curtis Connors laboratory at OsCorp. Please read the information below.

Your OsCorp Team.'

"Uh, Tony, I didn't know I sign up for this kind of thing." I said and looked at him.

"No you didn't, but I did. Under your name. Because only students were allowed to participate." He replied like it was no big deal and poured some red wine into his glass.

I gave him an unbelieveable look. "You do realize that they won't let you in?" Unless you use the power of your company.

"I know. That's why _you_ are going for me, and afterwards you'll tell Uncle Tony _everything_ you saw."

I heard Steve muttering something about 'scientists' under his breath.

I looked at the letter again.

"What does Connors do anyway? Definitely not designing weapons, right?" I asked.

"Cross-species genetics." Bruce answered.

Ew, science, it already sounds awful. Cross-species genetics. Gross gross gross.

"Yeah, I'm not going. Sorry Tony, but science is just not my thing." I announced and put the letter away.

"What?!" Tony shouted "You don't like science?!"

"Yeah, problem with that?"

Tony out his left arm around my shoulder and motioned his right hand around the room. "JayJay, nowadays almost everything is made of science. The whole world is science, probably even the whole universe. Though I doubt that our God of Thunder has got science there. Well, but that is going to change when we make a wellness trip to Asgard."

Annoyed I slapped his arm from my shoulder away. "No, and that's my final decision." I said firmly and went back to my broccoli.

"You could use this chance to find out more information about Richard Parker and Curt Connors. Fury did visit you a week ago and asked you about the." Natasha commented.

I snapped my head toward her direction. How does she know about that? "Yeah well, I'm not one of his little spies, so I'm not working for him."

"You already work for him, you just haven't notice it yet."

I put down my knife and fork and stared at her for a long time. Natasha just stared back, her face betraying no emotions. My breathing quickened a bit and I was thinking about shouting and yelling at her. Thankfully Bruce felt the tension between us ladies and asked me in a kind tone: "How have you been lately, Jackie? Are there maybe some side-effects from the Tesseract? Should I do another blood sample test some time?"

"No thanks. I'm fine. Just a bit stressed because of school." I responded and sighed.

"She skipped P.E. class and went off to see a boy." Steve joined the conversation. I glared at him, not believing what he just said.

"Oooh, so out mascot does have a boyfriend." Tony said with a sudden curiosity "Tell me more about him. Is he good in bed?"

I rolled my eyes dramatically and banged my head against the table.

This is going to be a long diner.

oOoOoOo

"_Excuse me?"_

"_What?"_

"_Can I help you?"_

"_Oh, uh… I don't know. I', here… I'm here to see Dr. Connors."_

"_Right. You'll find yourself to the left… You are here for the internship?"_

"_Yeah. Yeah."_

"_Okay. You'll find your badge to the left."_

"_Oh!"_

"_Are you having trouble finding yourself?"_

"_No. I got it."_

"_Okay, Mr. Guevara."_

"_Gracias."_

oOoOoOo

Fuck you, son of Howard Stark.

I mean, if it keeps going like this, than everybody is just going to have their way with me. And that won't do me any good in my later life.

So yeah, Tony Star appeared on a Saturday morning on my doorsteps and literally dragged me to the OsCorp building. I of course kicked and screamed, but it didn't help much since he was wearing his full Iron Man armor. Steve already left and went to the SHIELD base to do whatever the hell he's doing there.

Well, there was quite a scene when Iron Man suddenly appeared at the reception. People were staring, but Tony ignored their looks and started to flirt with the receptionist. "Hi, I'm Tony Stark, owner of the Stark industry, you may have already hears of me. I'm here to drop this young lady," He put his hands on my shoulder and showed me to her "for her internship about the cross-species genetics."

"Of course." The receptionist replied, batting her eyelashes "She will find herself on the left. Mr. Guevara is also here for the internship."

I looked to my left and saw an all-too familiar face, wearing nerd glasses. My eyes widened in realization and I opened my mouth to say something, but shut it up when Mr. 'Guevara' put his finger in front of my lips, pleading me not to say anything.

I took the internship ID-card with my name on it and silently went over to Peter.

"Boy, make sure JayJay doesn't run away, knowing her she'll most likely try it. But don't even think about hitting on her, she already has got a boyfriend, got it?" Tony said seriously, and then put the mask down and flew away from where he came in: The big hole in the ceiling.

"I don't have a boyfriends, you stupid piece of rust metal!" I shouted after him and flipped the bird.

"You are… friends with Iron Man?" Peter asked in awe.

"I'm not even sure if 'friends' is the right term. Probably more 'tool', at the moment." I said and then pointed at his name tag "You're not supposed to be here."

Peter smiled sheepishly and scratched his head nervously. "Uh yeah, well, you won't rat me out, will you?"

I shook my head and Peter gave me a thankful smile. While standing in the group with the other interns, I wonder why he was here. So, he's here for Dr. Connors maybe, aaaand his father was Richard Parker. Connor and Parker senior worked together. Hm, I think I know where this is going.

We stood beside each other in an awkward silence for a while, before Peter decided to break it. "I uh, heard from my uncle that you were involved in the Manhattan incident."

I looked at him skeptical. "Lots of people were involved in it."

"Yeah, I know, but you were like, involved involved, in this whole alien invasion." He started to explain "And uh, apparently you gave the guy who was responsible for this a hug. There was even a photo."

"There's a photo of it?" I asked surprised. Wow, and I thought SHIELD is trying their best to delete every evidence of this mess.

"Mhm. There were also lots of assumptions why you did that." Peter added. I rolled my eyes. What comes next, Jackie x Loki shipping?

"So, why did you actually do that? Hug him, I mean." Peter asked.

I thought for a while. Should I really tell him all my fangirl feelings about Loki? Nah, too complicated, maybe some time later.

"Because Tom Hiddleston, that's why." I said instead in an end-of-the-discussion-tone.

Peter opened his mouth to say something, but just then someone arrived and introduced herself. It was the blonde girl from Midtown Science.

"Welcome to OsCorp. My name is Gwen Stacy," Ha, I knew her name started with a G "I'm a senior at Midtown Science and I'm also head intern to Dr. Connors, so I'll be with you for duration of your visit. Where I go, you go. That's the basic rule. If you remember that, all will be fine. If your forget that, then…"

We heard someone shouting 'I'm Rodrigo Guevara' and being dragged out of the building by the security guards. With a small grin I looked over to Peter, who looked away nervously.

"Well, I guess I don't need to tell you what happens if you forget that. Shall we."

"Hide me." Peter whispered and tried to hide behind me. Isn't working very well considering the fact that he's a good head taller than me.

We followed Gwen around while she explained to us the history of OsCorp, what the company does, and when they started with the cross-species-genetic thin. Lots of people were listening. I bet I'm the only one who really wants to make a dash for it, but an invisible force told me to stay, because something exciting is going to happen soon.

A man with a missing right arm in a white lab kit appeared. "Welcome, my name is Dr. Curtis Connors. And yes, on case you're wondering, I'm a southpaw." Insert awkward laughs "I'm not a cripple, I'm a former scientist and I'm the world's foremost authority on herpetology. That's reptiles, for those of you who don't know." I feel like that information was directed to me "But like Parkinson's patient who watched on in horror as her body slowly betrays her, or the man with macular degeneration who's eyes grow dimmer each day, I long to fix myself. I want to create a world without weakness. Anyone care to venture a guess just how?"

I snorted at the weakness part. Few interns turned their head and gave me a glare. One of them then put their hands up.

"Yes?" Dr. Connors said.

"Stem cells?" The intern guessed.

"Promising, but the solution I'm thinking of is more radical."

All the interns started to look at each other, trying to guess how the scientist wants to create such a thing.

Connors asked slightly disappointed: "No one?"

Just when he was about to leave, Peter said in a small voice: "Cross-species genetics."

Okay well, I think even I could come up with this one, I mean; Dr. Connors _is_ specialized in cross-species genetics, isn't he? Everyone turned and looked at Peter with curios gaze. I just stood there next to him, watching how Gwen started to look at her list. Probably to see if Peter's name was on it. Yep, someone's going to be in deep shit.

"A person gets Parkinson's when the brain cells that produce dopamine start to disappear. But the zebrafish has the ability to regenerate cells on command. If you can somehow give this ability to the woman you're talking about, that's that. She's… She's curing herself."

Yawn yawn yawn. Can I go home now?

A douchebag decided to comment on Peter's speech: "Yeah, you just have to look past the gills on her neck." The others laughed. Honestly, I don't get this joke.

Connors looked at Peter with a proud smile. "And you are?"

Peter bit his lip, getting a bit nervous, when Gwen decided to save him. "He's one of Midtown Science's best brightest.

Thought so. He's smart, and damn smoking hot. Really, compared to the old Spider-Man, it's a wonder that this version of Peter Parker still hasn't got a girlfriend yet. Well, that's most likely going to change soon, since Gwen is probably going to be his girlfriend, I think.

Just then Dr. Connors' phone rang. He excused himself and left. Gwen approached me and Peter. "Hi. How are you doing, Rodrigo?"

Peter looked at his badge, checking the name, and then looked back at her. "Oh, yeah."

"What are you two doing here?" She asked.

I shrugged my shoulders and said: "That bastard son of Stark signed me up for this."

Gwen looked at my badge and then back at her list. "So, your name is Jacqueline Michelle Rosalie Walker."

"Uh, yeah." I replied and shot Peter a glare as he snickered at my name "Just call me Jackie. Easy and simple. Remind m e to kill that genius multibillionaire playboy philanthropist later." Anyone get that reference?

Really, Tony, not only did you have to sign me up for this shit, you also have to use my full name? Is this some kind of punishment?

Gwen now turned to Peter, waiting for a good explanation about why he's here.

"I work here. I don't work here. I was gonna say…" He stuttered "I was gonna say I work here, but it seems like in fact you work here. So you know that I don't in fact work here."

Peter, you're not making sense at all. I'm just going to leave those soon-to-be lovebirds alone. I walked around aimlessly in this room, and occasionally looked over the shoulders of some workers, who in return turned around looking rather annoyed.

I glanced over to Peter. He was trying to leave this room while Gwen wasn't looking, but he bumped into someone who then dropped his files. The last thing I saw was how he followed that guy before both disappeared from my eyesight.

I was thinking about following him, when Gwen suddenly popped up out of nowhere. "Are you… Peter's girlfriend?"

Completely straight forward, without hesitation. I was taken aback slightly by this question. "No, we're actually just… Acquaintance."

You're all clear for the Peter Parker romance airline, because obviously you're the only one flying it.

Hm, she hasn't noticed that Peter sneaked off. Maybe I should just keep her distracted for a while.

Peter Parker, you owe me a big one for that.

oOoOoOo

"_We received the results from the MRNA sequences, they were disappointing."_

"_So define disappointing."_

"_I'm at a dead end. It's the Decay Rate Algorithm. But this is to be expected."_

"_Expected? You said you were close."_

"_We are close, but it's gonna take time."_

"_He doesn't have time. Norman Osborn is dying, Dr. Connors. Save him, or we'll both lose our heads."_

oOoOoOo

"You like science?" Gwen randomly asked.

I decided to be honest with her. "Nope no. not a bit. I'm more the… Language type."

She nodded. "What school do you go?"

I raised an eyebrow. Are we playing twenty questions now? Why does she want to know this?

"Uhm, I don't really feel comfortable telling other people what school I visit…" I trailed off, hoping she would drop this subject.

"It's okay." She said and smiled "It was filled out on the paper anyway when you signed up for this internship."

Then why did she ask me?

"I… Saw you on the news few weeks ago." Gwen started "You know, in Central Park."

Here we go again.

"Central Park, after the Manhattan incident?" I stated and bit the inside of my cheek.

"Are you… friends with those super heroes?"

"Mmh, depends on who you exactly mean." I explained.

Definitely friends with Steve. Tony well, I guess an uncle-nephew relationship maybe? Can't say the same about Bruce and Thor. I'm not even going to start with Natasha and Clint, let alone Fury.

"Do you know Captain America?" Gwen asked carefully.

Yeah, he's my neighbor. That's what I wanted to say, but then I remembered that no one knows Steve Rogers is Captain America. So instead of answering I just nodded.

"Cool. My father is a big fan of him." The head intern started to tell "He's the captain of the New York Police Department. One of his dreams are to invite Captain America over to dinner."

I had to bite back my laughter, thinking that Steve always eats dinner with me, but then I had to think of Coulson, who was also a big Captain America fan. His trading cards were signed now, just liked I promised him.

We both stood there in silence for a while, none of us knowing what to say. Gwen started to look around.

"Where is Peter Parker?" She asked and looked at me.

I was thinking about lying to her when I saw Peter coming through the door. I pointed behind her. Gwen turned around and looked at him disappointed.

"I…" Peter wanted to apologize, but got interrupted by Gwen.

"Give me the badge. Give it to me." She demanded and held out her hand.

Peter sighed, took off the badge and handed it to her. "Sorry."

Gwen then turned around and left us.

"You know." I offered Peter "If you really want to stay here, you can have my badge."

"And be called Jacqueline Michelle Rosalie by everyone?" He teased "Nah, it's okay. I'll go now."

As he walked out of the door, I saw a spider crawling on the back of his neck. My eyes widened. It's _the_ spider!

"Peter, there's a spider on your neck!" I warned him, but it was too late. He suddenly jolted, meaning that the spider had bitten him.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is how Spider-Man was born.

"Ouch." He winced and touched his neck to find the spider. It mysteriously disappeared.

"Well, hopefully you're not going to turn into a spider." I said jokingly, although it wasn't really a joke at all.

Peter gave me a weird look.

"Cross-species genetics, you know?" I explained with an awkward grin and followed him out. Another second in that room and I'm going to jump out of the window.

Outside we stood there for a while.

"So yeah…" I noted "Guess it's goodbye now."

Okay, that was lame. It sounded like we two were some really close friends saying farewell to each other.

"Mhm." Peter mhmed, not really helping with his short answer. He scratched his cheek, looking like he was thinking hard.

I took a deep breath and asked: "Can I uh, have your number?"He snapped his head toward me and looked at me surprised. "Uh sorry, can you say that again?"

I mentally slapped myself. Really, why did I even ask that? Didn't I want to stay as far a possible from him to avoid another possibly adventure?

"Just forget it, sorry. It was stupid from me." I rambled.

"No no. You wanted my number right?" He repeated what I asked and took out his cell phone. It was a Sonic Ericsson Xperia. The mini one. "So uh, maybe you can give me your number so I can give you a quick call now."

I nodded and quickly told him my number. Peter gave me a call, and I saved his number under my contacts. While doing that, I saw I there were five missed calls from Tony. Eh, whatever, he can wait; I'll call him back later.

"We can hang out sometimes, you know. If you have time… You're a pretty cool guy" Damn what is wrong with me today? Stupid auto pilot.

Peter looked really happy when I said that. "Really? I'll… I'll give you a call then."

"Okay. Well then, see ya!"

We both walked away from the OsCorp building. Awkward moment when you just said goodbye to each other, but the two of you are still walking into the same direction. The two of us burst out laughing at this situation. Peter is actually a really cute boy. Strangely it makes me a bit sad to know that he's going to end up with Gwen, but I quickly shook away the thought and went down the stairs to the subway station.

oOoOoOo

"_Director Fury, Walker went to the internship at OsCorp today, and just left a while ago with Peter Parker."_

"_Good. I'll have to thank Stark later. Anything else?"_

"_Parker got bitten by a spider, and Walker made an odd comment."_

"_Oh really, what comment?"_

"_Something about that boy turning into a spider."_

"_Hm, I see. Thank you agent for your report."_


	4. Chapter 4

**Aaaaand another update :) **

**I think from this chap on there will be LOTS of fillers because all those stuff that happens to Peter, Jackie won't be there. Let's face it, she can't be 24/7 watching over him, right :P? on the bright side, the Avengers are making more appearance :D**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter IV

It was a long long way home. And I had to use my most hated transport method: THE SUBWAY. I hate the subway, I hate the long waiting, I hate how you always have to run thousand miles to catch the next subway train and how despite outside having a summer heat it's always freezing cold in the subway stations. If you ask me, subway stations are illegal ice-storage places, ventilator-test stations or secret ninja-penguin training organization, I don't know, I'm not even going to complain about how worse my day got.

YES, it couldn't get any worse than it already way. Much to my luck (or dismay, I don't know) Peter and I had to take the same subway train to get home, with the exception that I had to go off earlier and change the train.

Me and Peter were – beside some thugs and their snotty little girlfriends- in a train. While those people were talking and drinking beer, I took out my iPhone and played 'SkyBurger' on it. Peter occupied a whole bench for himself, lying there stretched out, asleep. I didn't notice how one of the thug tried to balance a beer bottle on Peter's head, until he suddenly woke up and jumped onto the ceiling, hanging there.

While doing that, Peter knocked the beer bottle over and it spilled over one of the girls clothes. I jumped off of the seat from Peter's sudden awakening, clutching my shirt, trying to calm down, and then looked up.

"Uh, Peter?" I asked and pointed at the ceiling.

He looked down at me like he didn't know he was the on the ceiling and then quickly jumped down.

"Disgusting! Now I smell like beer!" The thug's girlfriends complained in her shrill voice, that makes my ear bleed.

Bitch please, like you didn't smell like beer before Peter knocked the bottle all over you.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that." Peter apologized and put a hand on her shoulder, but couldn't get it off "I… I uh… I…"

"Get your hand off her!" The guy yelled and took a step closer toward Peter. I slowly backed away, fearing that a fight might start anytime. Technically I could help Peter right now, but firstly I know jack shit about fighting and second, seeing the whole hanging-up-the-ceiling-thing I doubt he's going to need my help.

"I'm trying… To get my hand…" Peter stammered. The thug grew impatient and angrily pushed him, with the result that his girlfriend's t-shirt got ripped off. She stood there beet red in a black lacey bra.

The thug now tried to attack Peter, but he easily dodged his fists so fast the guy fell down on the floor and hurt himself. The friend of the thug also made a move to attack him, but Peter managed to knock off too.

Both thugs were lying on the floor now, groaning in pain and defeated, while their girlfriends stood aside and watched Peter with fear. I just stood there in a small corner, gaping. Well, I knew that thanks to the spider bite Peter's going to have super good reflexes et cetera, but seeing him in action live in front of your is completely different then seeing it on a big screen.

The two girls helped the douchebags on the floor to get up and they quickly left the subway train on the next station, leaving me and Peter alone.

"Damn, that was…" I started and searched for the right words "That was… Good reflexes?"

"Uh yeah, I didn't know I had good reflexes…" Peter mumbled and scratched his head nervously.

We stood there in silence for a while, no one knowing what to say. I hope he doesn't think I'm scared of him now after that little stunt. Hm, I wonder if the right time comes, should I approach him about the subject spider bite?

The train stopped at the next station.

"I have to go off now." I said and pointed at the door "Bye!"

"Bye. I'll, I'll give you a call some time then!" he said while I walked out of the subway.

"Do that. Oh, and don't be scared of spiders!"

Before Peter could even ask me what I meant by that, the door closed and the subway train took off in a fast speed to the next station.

Well then, let's see if he's going to call me or not.

oOoOoOo

"_Sir, you have to see this footage from the subway."_

"…_Hm."_

"_He took out two thugs all by himself without having a single scratch."_

"_Does his files say something about martial art trainings?"_

"_No director. We believe it may have to do something with the spider bite. It may be connected to the research from his father, Richard Parker."_

"_Good. I think we are close. Keep watching him."_

"_Yes, Director Fury."_

oOoOoOo

"Okay JayJay, I want you tell me every little details about the internship. Take your time and don't let anything you."

Tony made himself comfortable on my couch, legs propped up on the small table I rolled my eyes and dried my hair with a towel. On the way from subway to home it started to rain and of course I didn't bring an umbrella with me, like Steve always advised me to. In my defense I have to say that I didn't expect Tony to appear in the Iron Man suit at my balcony and abduct me to hell.

"I have a door." I said and pointed at said object "Use it. I hate how you land on balcony. It looks weird and it scares the shit out of some neighbors."

"Doors are for people with no imagination." Tony quotes Skullduggery Pleasant and smirked as I shot him a glare. I shouldn't have forced him to read this book, now he can't stop talking about them and comparing them to Harry Potter.

"I had JARVIS to look up that Rodrigo Guevara. Well, that boy wasn't him." Tony mentioned.

"Yeah I know." I replied and threw the towel away.

"Oh really? Care to tell Uncle Tony just who he was? Because I have the feeling you already know him."

"Midtown Science High School second best or something like that, I don't know."

"I was more thinking about a name."

I opened the fridge and too out a watermelon. "Peter Benjamin Parker. His father was Richard Parker."

Hearing that piece of information Tony suddenly became interested. "Richard Parker?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I think he used to work with that Connors dude from OsCorp."

I took out a kitchen knife and cut the watermelon in half, then in small triangle pieces. When I was little, I always thought if you eat the seeds, a watermelon would grow in my stomach, so I always refused to eat it until there wasn't any seed left. Now I know better.

"I've met Richard Parker once or twice. Brilliant scientist. Dad great goals for the world, maybe a bit… Extraordinary goals. A shame he died in a plane crash. He had a lovely wife." Tony estimated and took a bite from the watermelon.

Typical Tony. Of course you have to mention someone else's wife. Tststs, what you Pepper just say?

"And Connors?" I asked while putting some watermelon pieces back into the fridge. Those are for Steve, before Tony decides to eat them all.

"He's missing a right arm, right?"

"Yep." I popped the 'P' "I don't like him. He 'wants to create a world without weakness'. Sounds like a good thing, but personally I think shit is just going to happen."

"That's Connors for the outside world." Tony mused "Both of them wanted to change the world."

"Yeah I know. Cross-species genetics." I said and remembered what happened in the subway today. Should I tell him about it?

Tony looked at his watch. "Hm, I have to go now or else Pepper will take away my alcohol if I'm late." He stood up and walked to the door. Oh, you can leave my apartment through the door but not entering it?

"You still owe me the story!" Tony called over his shoulder before he disappeared.

I leaned on the kitchen counter and thought for a while. Obviously Peter is now a spider-human crossbreed. I wonder when he's going to know that though. Maybe I should just tell him that… Eh, he'll find it out sooner or later on his own.

So, Curtis Connors has got a thing for reptiles. I inwardly shuddered at the thought. I was never a big fan of reptiles. For some odd reason I'm scared of them. But turtles are okay, though I'm not sure if they count as a reptile. Does Connors want to cross breed human with a reptile? Hm, come to think of it, there was an enemy that resembled a lizard… I should have read the Spider-Man comics.

I looked at my iPhone on the table. No missed calls and no new messages from peter. A disappointed feeling welled up inside me. It was the same disappointment when I saw the Loki figurine on the Internet you could pre-order for 250$ at Hot Toy. I really wanted to have it but that time I already spent lots of money for some video games. I quickly shook the feeling off and tried to stay optimistic. It's late, he got bitten by a spider and got into a fight with some thugs in the subway (and won with ease), he has definitely got better things to do then calling me right now.

Convincing myself with that thought I plugged my iPhone in for recharge and went to bed.

oOoOoOo

"_Dr. Connors, uh… You don't remember me. I uh…"_

"_You're the intern from the other day."_

"_Yeah, that's right."_

"_I'm sure you're a very nice young man, but this is a home. I'd ask you to make an appointment in my office."_

"_I'm Richard Parker's son."_

"_Peter?... I'm afraid I can't help you much, Peter. I don't know why they left or where they were going… Good reflexes."_

"_Thank you."_

"_I read your book."_

"_Oh?"_

"_Yeaht. It's something. So you really think it's possible, cross-species genetics?"_

"_Yes, of course. But for years your father and I were mocked for our theories, not just in the community at large, but at OsCorp as well. They called us mad scientists. And then your father bred the spider and everything changed. The results were beyond encouraging, they were spectacular. We were gonna change the live of millions, including my own. Then it was over. He… He was gone, took his research with him. And then I knew without him I… I… I was angry, so I stayed away from you and your family. And for that I'm truly sorry."_

"_Say… Say it worked. Say you got it to work. Like how much would the foreign species take over? What… What could be the side effect?"_

"_It's hard to say, considering no subjects survive. The problem was always…"_

"_Decay Rate Algorithm?"_

"_Right."_

"_Right. Can I uh…"_

"_Of course… Extraordinary. How did you come up with this? … Peter, how would you feel about coming to see me at the Tower one day after school?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Thank you."_

oOoOoOo

There is a person who has got a shadow. Where he goes, the shadow follows him. When he takes a step back, the shadow does the same. If he stands at a shop window to look at something, the shadow does the same too. The shadow won't disappear until it found out what Super Soldier; Captain America; ex-fine art student is up to.

The person of course is Steve Rogers. The shadow happens to go by the name Jackie Walker.

I have officially made it my mission to find out what the hell if going on with Steve. For good two weeks I have notices that he has been acting strangely. Like, he randomly stares into the thin air with a distant look on his face (a quite happy one, may I add), he even turned a bit clumsy (much to everyone's surprise, when he accidentally knocked Pepper's favorite vase over) and he doesn't eat much anymore. Today in the morning, when I offered him some fresh cold watermelon, he politely declined it! Normally Steve happily digs in without hesitation! And few hours ago, he came into my apartment, asking me if the leather jacket fits to the shoes, and what cologne he should use! In that moments I knew something was very wrong with him.

So the first thing I did when he left was grabbing my iPhone and dialing the 911 aka Tony Stark's number and told him everything about Steve. Well, big mistake, he didn't see what the whole deal was about (he merely suggested electric shock therapy). At least Pepper was a help. She said maybe Steve was seeing someone. I refuse to believe it because well, it's _Steve_ we're talking about! You know what I mean by that.

After I thought about what Pepper said I decided to shadow Steve today. Letting Tony find out where he was, I grabbed my sunglasses, iPhone and bag and quickly followed him, making sure there was a safe distance between us.

Am I overreacting a bit? Yeah, maybe, but it's Sunday, my friends are out with their new lovers (who are all jerks, by the way) and I need something to do.

Steve stopped at a flower shop and went in. I watched from a distance how he came out with a small flower bouquet after ten minutes.

Okay, there's definitely something fishy going on.

Pushing my sunglasses back I waited for Steve to be good few meters away before going back to my shadowing. He made some turns and then stopped at a small café, holding the flower and looked at his watch every second, getting more and more nervous as the time passes by.

I was hiding behind a statue, ducking a bit and carefully looking over. I had a perfect view on the little café. Suddenly the memories from Stuttgart came back into my mind: The screaming people, Loki's infamous speech and several error tries to kill me. Ah well, Loki is now back on Asgard, so I don't have to worry about being choked to death by a God of Mischief now.

I looked at the time.

1.42 p.m.

And a missed call from Peter. I have to admit that I'm rather surprised he really did call me.

I made a small duck face and wondered whether I should call back or not. But that wasn't necessary when a familiar skateboard and CONVERSE shoes stopped in front of me. "Jackie? What are you doing here?"

I turned around to meet the owner of the voice, and surprise surprise, it was Peter. Without thinking I grabbed him by his arm and made us both sit down behind the statue, putting my finger on my lips, making shushing noises. "I'm shadowing my neighbor, and before you ask why, I'm bored and have nothing to do."

Peter raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask any further. He didn't make any moves to stand up and walk away (and pretending he doesn't know me), instead he just sat there with me.

I peeked over the statue and saw that Steve was still standing there. Peter did the same and nodded toward Steve, asking. "That tall blonde guy is your neighbor?"

I nodded as an answer. Just then a woman with dark brown curly hair, cherry red lips (I'm sure there are some lip sticks sticking on her teeth) wearing an elegant black dress and res high heels walked toward Steve. He handed her the flowers and she gave him a pretty smile.

I gaped at the whole scenery, not believing what I'm seeing at all. Strangely Peter was gaping too. Probably because of that beautiful woman. Men.

Steve then gave the woman a quick kiss on the lips, making my eyes almost popping out of my head, like in the old classical cartoons. Honestly, I don't even know why I'm finding this whole thing weirs. I mean, Steve is a young (maybe not so young anymore) handsome man and it's pretty much normal that he's got women swooning over him. Hm, maybe it's because I was sure that Steve's only love would be Peggy Carter. Come to think of it, the woman does looks a bit like Peggy Carter.

"We need to do something." I whispered to Peter seriously.

"We?"

"Well, I actually, but it looks weird if I'm sitting there alone, and he'll knows what's going on then." I explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which technically is.

I stood up. Peter did the same and looked at me with the do-I-even-want-to-know-what-you're-planning-look.

"We," I stated and pointed at the both of us "are going to drink some coffee and tea now."

And with that I grabbed him by his sleeves and dragged him to the café.

* * *

**RANDOM QUESTION TIME: PSP or Nintendo DS, what's better in your opinions? :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**I just realized that even though Loki isn't making appearance in this story, he's still mentioned in almost every chapter :P**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

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Chapter V

„What would you like to have?"

"Cappuccino." Peter ordered.

"Tea." I said in opposite. I felt bad for dragging him here without asking first, so for making things up I'm inviting him for a coffee. Though I doubt Peter had better things to do. He did give me a call earlier today.

The waitress wrote down our orders, took away the menu and walked off. I stared out of the window, right at the seat where two people were chatting and laughing. Those two people just happen to be Steve Rogers and an anonymous woman. Let's dub her Peggy-clone because she looks a lot like her and I can't think of any better codenames, I need my friends for that. Good chances that we are the only people on Earth who give every boys, girls and teachers a codenames. Mostly they are related to food (like apple, ketchup, mustang, shake, broccoli-head et cetera).

Peter took out a book from his bag and began to read. Normally I would consider it as extremely rude to read something in someone else's presence, but then again, many people would argue that I do the same thing too. I squeezed my eyes together to see better what the book was about. I really need to buy some glasses.

Cross-species genetics. From Curtis Connors. Should have guessed that.

Peter seemed to have noticed the annoyed look at my face. "Do you have something against my book?"

"I don't have anything against the book," I said "I merely find the subject of the book rather spooky and I don't like the author."

"Why?" Peter asked.

I shrugged. "He gives me the creeps."

"He seems to be a nice person."

"Just because he was a close friend of your father's?" The word flew out of my mouth before I could even process what I just said.

Peter stared at me, surprise written all over his face. "How do you know that?" He asked dangerously, his hand forming a fist.

"A uh, friend of mine met them before. He told me a bit…" I explained, hoping Peter won't find out that I was lying. Well, technically I'm not lying; Tony did tell me few things about Richard Parker and Curtis Connors.

Peter looked out of the window, thinking. The waitress brought us our drinks. I carefully glanced at my target, and saw that those two were still sitting there. Good. Can't afford to lose them out of my sight.

I poured five full tea spoon sugars into my tea, mixed it properly so it will taste good and carefully took a small sip, making sure not to burn my tongue.

"Uh, you know, yesterday…" Peter started "When we left... Uh…" Apparently he was struggling to find the right words.

I waited (im)patiently and took another sip from my tea.

"Do you uh, remember what you said?"

"I tend to say a lot of useless things. Can you maybe be a bit more precisely?" I said calmly, adapting an aristocrat lady like manner, due spending the whole night reading 'Kuroshitsuji' yesterday. I really shouldn't do that in real life, especially since I'm far from a lady. And it's probably making me look stupid right now.

"That comment, after I uh, got bitten by a spider…" Peter reminded me and stared at his untouched cappuccino.

I stared at him for a long time. From the outside, I may appear to be calm, thinking. On the inside, all those things are running through my head. Stuff like 'ScheißeScheißeScheiße' and 'Jackie, you stupid brownie' or 'I shouldn't have said that, even though it was meant as a joke'.

"It's a… _Twilight_ reference!" I stuttered out, looking at everything but Peter. "Yeah, a _Twilight_ reference."

Peter furrowed his brows. "Uh, okay…"

"Really, it's because, you know, in _Twilight_, there are those vampires, I think, and when they bite a human, they turn into a vampire too, and well, I just had to think of vampires when you got bitten by the… Spider…" The more I talked the lesser sense I made, until I just decided to shut up.

I feel like a complete idiot now. Vampire and spiders are two completely different things, it would have made more sense if Peter got bitten by a bat (but then I would have said he's going to turn into batman). He must think that I'm one of those hardcore Twilight fans now, going 'Team Edward!' and 'Team Jacob!' all the time (although I admit I'm more Team Jacob…). Really, why did I even take Twilight as an example? I don't even like it! I mean, the books are tolerable, but the movies were just downright horrible. It must be because of all the movie posters from the second part of that new movie that is going to come out soon. I should have taken 'Vampire Knight' or 'Tokyo Mew Mew' as an example; at least Peter doesn't know what those things are.

"Why do you ask?" I carefully changed the subject a bit.

Peter shrugged his shoulders and scratched his cheek.

"Is it because of what happened in the subway yesterday?" I purchased further.

"Uh yeah, maybe, a bit." Peter replied, taking a sip from his cappuccino.

I have the sudden urge to bomb him with questions, about if he knows he's got spider powers now, or if he could shoot webs from his wrist. Biting my bottom lip to prevent those questions from escaping my mouth, I asked instead: "Did… Something else happen?"

His answer cam way too fast. "What, no no, not at all. Everything's uh… Peachy, yeah. I didn't destroy my alarm clock or the sink at all, no."

I leaned back and grinned amusedly at his rambling. It was cute, somehow.

"You're a bad liar." I pointed out, grinning.

"Sorry… "Peter apologized sheepishly, which only makes him cuter. "Can't blame me for not having a Silvertongue like that God of Mischief now, can I?"

I immediately dropped my grin. My heart started to beat slightly faster, millions of thoughts went through my head, like how did Peter knew about Loki and all that jazz.

"Uh, Norse mythology, you know." Peter explained, obviously noted my sudden chance of behavior.

"Yeah, I know." I answered, almost whispering.

"I had it in history class few years ago… You ever took it?"

I shook my head, sighing in relied slightly. I don't know why, but somehow it makes me feel better if Peter doesn't know what happened between me and Loki.

… Okay, that just sounded to wrong. Like, we had a forbidden love story, I'm Juliet and Loki is Romeo, and now that my Romeo is gone I have to move on but I can't do if someone keeps reminding me of him and blah blah blah. Really, all that happened between us were failed attempts to kill me, a bitch fight in his cell, kidnapping á la Pirates of the Caribbean style (you know, the whole we-need-you-blood-to-reach-something thing), and then another bitch fight, small therapy during his last hours on Earth and then a tiny small goodbye hug. I hardly count this whole thing that happened during those two days as a romance (unless you change a few things here and there, then maybe you can try to make a shojo-manga out of it).

"I think the God's name was… Loko? Or Loli…" Peter guessed.

"Loki." I corrected him.

"Yeah, Loki. That would have been my next guess…"

"Sure." I retorted sarcastically, a small smile tugging on my lips.

"Really, it was! I may be irresponsible and forgetful sometimes, but not that extreme!" Peter exclaimed, a smile playing on his face. "You have to believe me."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow for a while, and then we both burst out laughing. It was a nice feeling, to be able to laugh like this. I haven't done that for a long time, not even with my friends, since it was a bit hard for me to talk to them again after this whole movie-becoming-reality-thing.

"Hey, your neighbor is leaving." Peter announced and pointed out of the window at the table where Steve and Peggy clone sat.

I waved my hand in a 'You're dismissed' gesture. "It can wait."

We stayed at the café a bit longer and chatted a lot.

At the end, Peter told me he visited Connors this morning at his house. He didn't mention why though, but I kind of knew why, so I didn't ask any further. He also told me he got invited to the OsCorp tower too meet him after school some day.

I didn't comment on that one. I had a bad feeling about that Connors dude and that something is going to happen soon, but quickly shooed the feeling away with the thought that it's not really my business and went back to our conversation about crusts on sandwiches.

oOoOoOo

"_I hope they're not gonna make us pay for the backboard."_

"_I don't care about the backboard. Was that true?"_

"_What?"_

"_What I heard in there, just now? Did you humiliate that boy?"_

"_Yeah, I did. But…"_

"_But what?"_

"_This guy… This guy deserved it."_

"_Did he?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Is he the kid that hit you? … Is he?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_So this is all about getting even? If so, I guess you must feel pretty good about yourself now, right? Am I right or wrong? Yeah, I thought so. Well, thanks to this little escapade of yours, I had to change shifts at work. So you have to pick Aunt May tonight at nine o'clock, understood? Is that understood?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_Okay. Good."_

oOoOoOo

I stood in front of the gate of my school, listening to 'The Red Necklace' (a bit hard to concentrate on what the story was about) and waited for a certain SHIELD director to come and pick me up. I got a surprise call from him saying that he's going to pick me up after school, and threatened to haunt me down even if I just think of running away. I scoffed at that, but didn't want to take the risk, so now I'm playing the well-behaved little girl and waited for a familiar black car to pick me up.

It seems like that Nick Fury wanted to talk to me. I doubt it's because he missed my presence or something like that, more like he wanted something from me.

Time passed slowly, students were walking out of the school building, saying goodbye to their friends, passing me by. My two best friends are already out on a double date, watching a horror movie. They did ask me if I wanted to come along, but I politely decline it, saying that I've already watched the movie with someone else. The truth is I didn't want to sit in a horror movie between two love birds, while they could hug their boyfriends and I have to suffer alone during a movie.

My thoughts were interrupted by the familiar screeching sound of car against concrete, and then the black car from SHIELD stopped in front of me The black tinted window lowered down and Fury's face appeared, motioning me to get in I put my headphones away, opened the door to the car and got in.

Fury didn't hesitate and went straight to the point: "How's Peter Parker doing?"

"Please." I scoffed, feigning offense "Like SHIELD didn't know. I'm sure you already know most of the things that happened."

Fury smirked a bit, meaning that I was correct. "How was the internship?" he asked politely, offering me something to drink.

I took the glass of mineral water. "Boring. I left earlier. Connors is weird; His head is a box full of cats." I quoted lamely.

"Probably not as full as Loki's" Eye-patch added.

"No, Connors got two boxes full of cats." I replied sarcastically, taking a sip from the water and grimaced. The water was warm.

"Parker is currently in the OsCorps building." Fury informed me.

"Aha." I responded and looked out of the window. Buildings were passing by. From far away I could make out Stark's tower, currently going under a major construction. I hope Stark decided to finally build some windows into his bathroom.

"There is something else I want to talk to you about." Fury started, having my attention again he opened a small black trunk and took out an official looking guideline and handed it to me.

I stared at the guideline The SHIELD logo was plastered on it big, on the bottom the full name of SHIELD written on it. I looked at Fury with a questioning look.

He said in a pure business tone: "We want you to join SHIELD."

oOoOoOo

"_I remember that. I've seen it before."_

"_The Ganall Device."_

"_Yeah, I remember a picture of that in my dad's office."_

"_The idea was so simple, you load it with an antigen, it creates a cloud which can be dispersed over a neighborhood, even an entire city. Theoretically you could cure Polio in an afternoon."_

"_It's incredible."_

"_Well, others disagreed. You know, what if the devices were loaded with a toxin? What if you wanted to opt out? You can't run away from a cloud after all, so here it lied, gathering dust… What you see here is a computer model of lizard. Many of these wonderful creatures are so brilliantly adaptive that they can regenerate entire limbs at will. You can imagine my envy. We're trying to harness this capability in transferring into our host subject, Freddie, the three legged mouse… Enter the algorithm now."_

"_Okay. Check. See what I'm trying to do?"_

"_Preempt the protein."_

"_Preempt the immune response."_

"_Extraordinary. And thank you… Meet Fred and Wilma, our three legged mice."_

"_Hey, buddy. I got you."_

"_Okay. Careful, wouldn't want to inject you by mistake. Human trials aren't until next week… There."_


	6. Chapter 6

**Sooo, school started again, therefor I probably won't have much time to update often... I love my new English teacher, I know for sure that this year I'm going to get a B in English instead of my usual C haha xD**

**anyway, so I already started to think about stories I want to write after I finished this one. I know for sure that I'm going to do a second guideline ft peter Parker to double the fun, and well, wait until a new marvel sequel comes out so I can continue to write about Jackie and her misadventures... Oh and then there's a 100 theme challenge I wanna do too! :D**

**Anyway, onto the story. I planned to end it with ten chapters like my last one, but it seems like it's going to get a bit longer due all the fillers :P **

**Oh yeah, and I apologize for the shortness in the chapters I updated lately... It seems like a writer blocks is going to hit up soon... **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter VI

That awkward moment when you're in the New York police headquarter and the captain of the police department is crying tears of joy.

George Stacy, Gwen's father, re-read the stuff that was written on a piece of paper, while his daughter stood beside him, looking really proud and happy. Some workers congratulated her for something and handed the captain a tissue so he could whip off his tears.

Well, when I opened the door, I was expecting to enter the word of badass polices, not some softy crying over a piece of paper. Nick Fury dropped me here off. He said that Captain America was holding some speeches here or something like that.

I stood at the door awkwardly, not knowing what to do, so I waited for them all to finish their small moving moment. Captain Stacy then gave Gwen a big hug and returned the paper to her. Her eyes then landed on me, finally noticing my presence. Gwen looked a bit surprised to see me here, but then she smiled and walked toward me.

"Hey Jackie! What are you doing here?" she asked

"Uhm, I'm actually looking for someone who's supposed to be here…" I said and looked around; trying to spot a familiar blue suit "Did something… Good happened?"

Gwen's smile turned into a big happy grin. "I got a good college recommendation from my mentor on a college specialized on science!"

"That's… Great!" I congratulated her.

Wow, that girl's a smart head. First a science high school, then head-intern at OsCorp, and now a science college recommendation from his mentor. Here for I officially declare Gwen Stacy to be heroine. Give her the Oscar, the Bambi, the Golden Camera and the new founded Nobel-price for girls, who have to endure science the whole day. If it was me, I'd already have killed myself.

"Who is this?" George Stacy appeared next to Gwen; eyes still a bit wet and looked at me. I felt slightly uncomfortable under his gaze.

"I'm Jackie Walker." I said and shook his hand as he holds it out in front of me.

"Captain George Stacy." He introduced himself "How can I help you?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but it seems like Gwen knew why I was here. "Jackie's here to see Captain America."

I stared at Gwen and wondered how she knew that. Noticing my look she just gave me a grin.

"Oh really? What business do you have with him?" Mr. Stacy asked with a criticizing tone. To me, it sounded more like 'Sorry, but normal civilest aren't allowed to see him here'.

I shrugged my shoulder, not really knowing what I should say. I think it's a bad idea to say that we're well, neighbors. Stacy senior will most likely laugh at me and send me right away. Before the Captain could really do that, Steve came out of a room, shaking hands with some polices and made his way toward the door. The shield was tugged under his arm, his face unmasked. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw me, and then quickly jogged toward us. From the corner of my eye I could see that Captain Stacy stiffed slightly and got a bit nervous. Hm, didn't Gwen say her father was a Captain America fan? My mid wandered to Coulson and I felt a sudden pang of guilt in my chest.

"Jackie, what are you doing here?" Steve asked me, completely ignoring Captain Stacy, much to my amusement.

"I didn't get arrested, if that's what you're thinking." I joked "Mad-Eye sent me here."

Steve nodded at that while Gwen and her father gave me a weird look. I ignored it and continued talking: "He's waiting outside."

George Stacy coughed awkwardly, trying to get Captain America's attention. "That was a wonderful speech, Sir. It's such a big honor to have you here."

Where have I heard that before?

Steve turned to Captain Stacy and both of them started to walk away while talking, leaving me alone with Gwen, who said: "We should sit down. Until my father finished talking to Captain America, it's going to take a while."

We sat down on a nearby bench. No one said anything for a while. Well, there was actually nothing to say. We don't go to the same school, we're barely friends, there's nothing really to talk about. And that made me damn uncomfortable.

I stretched out my leg and looked around a bit. Police officers were working on their computers, chatting and drinking coffees. My eyes then wandered to my bag, where that guideline Fury gave me was. I decided to take a look into it in the evening, where I can think about the offer he made me.

"How's Peter?" Gwen spoke, interrupting my train of thoughts.

I stared at her dumbly, wondering why she would ask me how Peter was. How the hell am I supposed to know that?

As if she could read my mind, Gwen explained: "You two left earlier that day, so I assumed you are good friends."

I pressed my lips into a thin line and thought about what she said. Are Peter and I good friends? Friends for sure, but good friends? I don't know, we barely knew each other. Well, obviously I know more about Peter than he about me, but not simple stuff like hobbies or birthdays. That definitely doesn't make us good friends, does it? A good friend would know such things.

"He's okay… I think." I responded "You two are… Classmates, right?"

Gwen nodded.

"Are you two… Good friends?" I asked carefully. Since those two are most likely going to end up together, I might just ask about their current relationship.

"Hm." Gwen mused "Well, I hope so." She then let out a small chuckle. I chuckled too, but it wasn't really a… Honest one. Somewhere deep inside me I was hoping that she would say something like 'Nope no, I don't know him at all'.

"You're… Sixteen years old, right? A junior." Gwen asked, or rather stated. It slowly creeps me out how she knows so much about me. Well, not that much, but it's still quite a lot considering the fact that we never really had a real conversation before.

"And you're a senior." I countered "Seventeen or eighteen?"

"Seventeen."

Ah, so a year older than me. We both continued talking and asking questions, until Captain Stacy finally returned Steve to me. We both said goodbye to each other and walked out of the police headquarter.

Somehow I had the feeling that I forgot something important about Spider-Man, but I couldn't really recall what it was.

Shrugging my shoulder to myself Steve and I stepped into the black car where Fury was waiting for us and drove off.

oOoOoOo

"_Listen to me, son."_

"_Yeah, go ahead."_

"_You're a lot like your father. You really are, Peter, and that's a good thing. But your father lived by a philosophy, a principle really. He believed that… That if you could do good things for other people, you had a moral obligation to do those things. That's what at stake here. Not a choice, responsibility."_

"_That is nice. That's really… That's great. That's all well and good, so where is he?"_

"_What?"_

"_Where is he? Where's my dad? He didn't think it was his responsibility to be here and tell me this himself?"_

"_Oh, come on! How dare you?"_

"_How dare I? How dare you?"_

"_Where are you going? Peter, come back here! Please!"_

oOoOoOo

I have to say, I really missed the lab on the Helicarrier.

Sitting on a chair, I took a deep breath of air and sighed. Chin propped up on both hands; I waited patiently for Bruce to prepare the needle for a blood sample test. It was time for my monthly Tesseract-in-blood-check up with my personal house doctor Bruce Banner.

We didn't speak much with each other, but when we did, they are mostly conversations with some… Depth and psychology in it. It's one of the great things about Bruce. He may not talk a lot and keep most things to himself, but when he decides to open up a little bit to you, you can really talk about (almost) everything with him.

Let's take Loki as an example. You can approach Bruce with that subject without worrying he may go 'Loki is the bad guy and we should just kill him end of the story'. Last time we met, Bruce invited me to a Häagen-Dazs ice cream while we were there, we randomly started to discuss about Loki, his actions and well, how his mind worked. At that time Bruce still believed that his mind was a 'box full of cats', so I told him what I knew about Loki's background et cetera. After out little discussion and analysis I was sure I could write a full ten page essay about Loki.

Point is, Bruce is someone who wouldn't treat you like complete shit even if you have leaded an army to Earth and tried to rule it. Well, I _think_ he's that kind of person.

The familiar sound of the end credit music from Pokemon Black and White started to rang. I took out my iPhone and looked at the callers ID. Peter Parker. It's 11.30 p.m. now. Why was he calling me at this hour? Struggling whether I should pick up or not, Bruce cam with a needle, disinfection spray and the familiar band-aid with the SHIELD logo on it.

Bruce took a quick glance at my iPhone. "Why don't you pick it up? It could be important, seeing as he's calling you this late." Just then it stopped to rang, leaving a one-missed-call message on the screen.

I shrugged my shoulders and stretched out my left arm for him. Truthfully I don't know why I hesitated to pick it up. And Bruce did have a point there. If Peter called me this late, it has got to be something important.

The needle poked into my skin. I hold my breath and waited for it to be over. And the SHIELD band-aid was put on. Taking my iPhone into my hand, I dialed Peter's number and tried to call him back. I waited for him to pick it up, but he never did. I called him again.

"He doesn't pick up." I said particularly to no one.

"Then maybe it wasn't that important." Bruce responded and put my blood sample into a vial.

I furrowed my brows and thought hard. Why would Peter call me at this late hour? Did something happen? Hm, now when I think about it, in the old Spider-Man movie I remember someone died… The Green Goblin obviously, but there was someone else… Jesus, why do I have a short time memory?

"Was that your boyfriend?"

I rolled my eyes at that question. Gee, what is with people asking me if I have a boyfriend these days? I mean, if I had one, I would tell them! One second thought… No, I'll mostly keep it to myself. I don't even want to know what would happen to that boyfriend of mine if I told the Avengers about him.

"No it wasn't. And before you ask, I don't have one, but apparently Steve has one." I babbled.

Bruce looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Steve Rogers has got a boyfriend?"

"Uh what? Oh no," I corrected myself "Steve has got a girlfriend. I think."

"That's great for him. But there is something else that's been bugging you since you found it out, isn't there?" Bruce Banner, always guessing correctly.

"Uhm well… How do I out this into words… Steve's new flame looks a lot like his previous love?"

Bruce gave me a weird look. "I'm not sure if I even want to know how you know Steve's old lover looked like," Oh yeah, considering the fact that she lived in WW II and Bruce still doesn't know the complete truth about me "but don't you think it's better just stay out of his business? It's not good to interfere into other people's love life."

"I just followed him to his date that one time." I muttered under my breath and let out a yawn. It's 11.45 p.m. now. I have school tomorrow, but lucky me Fury managed to pardon me from school for one day, which means I can sleep out. Unfortunately Fury requested (or rather ordered) I should stay the night in the Helicarrier, and tomorrow someone will bring Steve and me to our apartment building. I groaned at the thought of sleeping on that pathetic excuse of a bed.

"I think you should go to bed now." Bruce said and gave me a light pad on my shoulder, leading me to the door.

I bid him a good night and tried to find my way to my assigned room on the Helicarrier.

oOoOoOo

"_That's two-o-seven… Uh… it's two-o-seven."_

"_Yeah. No, I know."_

"_Here, you're holding up the line… No, you can leave a penny. You can't take a penny."_

"_What?"_

"_You can't leave a penny anytime, you have to spend ten dollars to take a penny Store policy. You gonna pay? You're holding up the line!"_

"_I don't have two cents."_

"_You can't afford your milk, just step aside. What, daddy didn't give you enough milk money today?"_

"_It's two cents; we're talking about two cents."_

"_Just step aside, kid… Really?... Hey, stop! Somebody stop that guy! … Hey, kid, a little help?"_

"_Not my policy."_

* * *

**BTW, to those readers who miss Loki in the story, I did a Loki fanart :D It can be found on my tumblr: szynka2496 :)**_  
_


	7. Chapter 7

**Some minor Peter/Jackie moments in this chapter, barely nothing xD **

**eh well, enjoy :D**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter VII

It was half past twelve in the afternoon when I woke up and tiredly trudged toward the canteen to get some breakfast. From what I remember the food here was really bad. Tomatoes and unpeeled onion. Things that I hated with a great passion. And since I woke up late, it's lunch time for the workers on the Helicarrier, so the good that was available were of course tomatoes, unpeeled onions and mashed potatoes. Just like last time.

I didn't even bother to eat one bite; I just shoved the plate away from me, and leaned back on the chair. Closing my eyes I thought about the time on the Helicarrier. Short, but memorable. And I still didn't get to play 'Word of Warcraft' on one of those awesome modern technology.

Ah well, there is always a next time.

I heard footsteps approaching my table and how a chair got pulled out. Opening my eyes, I expected more Steve to be sitting there. Instead it was Fury.

"Have you thought about my offer to join SHIELD?" Fury asked.

I scrunched my nose. "No, not really."

He made some 'hmpf' noises and looked away, staring at a nearby wall. Then he said: "Ben Parker was killed yesterday."

I immediately straightened up and stared at Fury in disbelief. Of course, I knew there was something really sad in important I forgot! Peter's uncle's death! I then remember the phone calls from Peter yesterday at late hour.

"He called me yesterday." I said, almost whispering "And I didn't pick up."

What if Peter called me yesterday because he needed well, help? What if I could have somehow prevented his uncle's death? A sick feeling mixed up in my stomach, and suddenly I felt like vomiting. First Coulson, and now Ben Parker. Two deaths I knew from the beginning and could have stop it, but didn't because of my stupidness and forgetfulness.

"This is not your fault, if that is what you're thinking." Fury reassured

I didn't say anything. Sure it wasn't really my fault, but still I felt really bad. How am I supposed to face Peter now? I don't know if I could ever talk to him again, without even feeling the slightest bit guilty.

Fury let out a sigh and stood up. "There's a jet ready to take you and Captain Rogers back." And with that he left.

I sat there for a while and pondered about some things. Is Peter going to get revenge now? What exactly happened? I remember in the old movie it was because he didn't stopped a thief or something like that, I think.

I returned to my room and took my bag, ready to leave the Helicarrier. Seeing Steve already waiting for me, I made a mental note to do some research about that girlfriend of his.

I needed to get my mind off from Peter Parker for a while.

oOoOoOo

"_Hey, Parker?"_

"_Not today, Flash."_

"_Hey, come on, man. I just wanna talk… It feels better, right? Look, your uncle dies. I'm sorry. I get it. I'm sorry. Okay?"_

oOoOoOo

Three days have passed since I heard about Peter's uncle's death. During those three days I didn't get any calls from his and neither did I call him. Still I kept checking my iPhone every ten minutes to see if there were any missed calls or messages, and every time when I saw none I felt a bit disappointed.

It also seems like my disappointment was always well written over my face.

"Something on your mind?" Natasha, who unexpectedly visited me, asked.

I stared at my kitchen wall and shrugged my shoulders. The guideline to join SHIELD was lying on the table, papers a bit scattered, some things highlighted. I finally took my time to read this thing and think about it. It's a good thing Natasha is here; at least I can ask her a few questions.

Truth to be told, I didn't like the Black Widow that much. She always has got that I-don't-trust-you-look on her face, and it makes me really uncomfortable to talk to her. But then again, it's somehow expected from a top-assassin like her.

Though today, Natasha completely dropped off the whole agent look and was wearing some 'normal' clothes. Skinny jeans, shoes with some heels, and a tank top with a jeans jacket. From what I've heard, she had a day off or something like that. Well, it was Friday. Though I'm surprised Natasha decided to spend it with a nobody like me.

"Where's Birdy?" I asked. Basically it means 'You have a day off, why are you here and not with Hawkeye?"

"He's on a mission." She replied unimpressed "I thought I might visit you, and maybe have a girls talk. Haven't have one for a long time, I missed it. Plus it won't be bad to get to know each other a bit better."

"I doubt you're going to tell me much about you." I muttered under my breath. Natasha smiled slightly at what I said.

"It's not like we both have anything better to do. Everyone's busy lately." The top-assassin added.

"Touché." If she means with busy going on dates with their lovers, then yeah, most of them are very busy indeed. Speaking of dates and lovers…

"Do you know who's Steve's girlfriend?" I asked Natasha?

She looked at me and then smiled a knowing smile. "I thought you were never going to ask." Natasha then reached for her bag and took out a photo of the woman from the café that day. "Is it her?"

I squeezed my eyes together to get a better look of the photo (still haven't got any glasses…) and then nodded. Do I even want to know how she found it out?

"Her name is Maggie McCartney. She's a fine-art student and comes from Great Britain." Natasha explained.

With each explanation my eyebrow rose higher. Maggie McCartney sounds A LOT like Peggy Carter. Britain, sure not Scottish? And a fine-art student? Wasn't Steve one too?

"If Steve knows we're doing this kind of stuff behind his back, he's going to kill us." I pointed out.

Natasha just shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal. "As long as we keep quite he won't find out anything."

True true.

I stood up from my chair. "You want something to drink?"

"Coffee please."

I put some instant coffees into the cup and prepared the hot water. There was a silence in the room; only the sound of the water bubbling could be heard.

"Do you want to join SHIELD?" Natasha finally dared to ask, and nodded toward the scattered guideline on the table.

I scratched my cheek. "Well, the offer sounds kinda tempting, but in the other side, this whole joining SHIELD thing reminds me a bit of joining the SOLDIER rank."

Natasha gave me a questioning look at what I said.

"Final Fantasy VII reference." I explained lazily. In all honesty, I think that joining SHIELD is like selling your soul to them. I poured the hot water into the cup and gave it to Natasha, and then made myself an Earl Grey tea. "Is there maybe something important I need to think about before joining?"

Natasha took a small ship from her coffee, and without looking at me she replied: "Love is for children."

I didn't need any further explanation to know what she meant. Basically, if you join SHIELD, it's the best to let go of love, it's a weakness, it will only be in your way, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda… Hm, didn't she say that to Loki?

"Are you dating someone at the moment?"

I groaned at this question. Here we go again. "What is with people asking me this kind of question these days?"

"So you're not going out with that Parker boy." Natasha concluded.

"No I'm no- Wait how do you…"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Never mind, I don't even want to know." I grunted a bit annoyed.

"SHIELD has been keeping track on him." Natasha notified me.

"And you're telling me that because…"

"We think he started to look for the thug that killed his uncle."

Which is considered as fairly normal in my opinion, I mean, that's how Spider-Man was really born, right? Does SHIELD know Peter is a successful cross-breed between human and spider now? Most likely yes, they did make clear they're keeping an eye on him. A wonder SHIELD hasn't contacted him yet, I was sure they would arrest him the moment they knew about Peter's power. Should I ask Natasha? But what is SHIELD actually doesn't know jackshit and then I accidently tell them everything? Not a wise move.

Natasha noticed my sudden silence, analyzes it and then stated: "You're thinking about him."

I didn't confirm her statement nor did I deny it. I simply leaned against the kitchen counter and stared into mid-air. Somehow I felt bad for not calling Peter, asking how he was, especially after his uncle's death, where he probably needs a friend the most.

"Why don't you got visit him?"

Damn, almost forgot she was still here.

I put down my tea mug and pursed my lips at her question. A good one and I'm not sure if I even know the answer myself. "Dunno. Fear for rejection, maybe?" I offered her.

"Rejection?" Natasha pushed the subject further.

"I don't know, like when I stand on his doorway, and he says he doesn't want to see me, he wants to be left alone, blah blah blah, you know, this kind of stuff!" I rambled and threw my hands up in the air "Beside, it's not like we're really _good and close_ friends."

"But Peter see's you as one." She interjected.

"We barely know each other." I argued.

"And yet he called _you_ that night."

I was stunned into silence. Natasha had a point there. At first I thought Peter called because he needed help, or had a problem or God knows what else (but me being lazy didn't pick the phone up). He could have called someone else, maybe Gwen, but he called _me_, someone he only knows for like, two weeks maybe.

Sitting on the chair, I gripped my hair and kept repeating to myself: "Ich bin so verdammter Idiot…"

Natasha didn't ask what I was saying. She probably understood it anyway, seeing as she mastered lots of different languages. "You know, it's still not too late to visit him."

"Yeah well, I don't know where he lives." I reminded her.

"You know where he goes to school but not where he lives?"

I gave her a glare. Instead of replying, Natasha reached for her bag and took out a small piece of paper and a medium sized packet. It says 'Industrial Spider Silk' from OsCorp. I think I know where this is going…

"That's his address." The Black Widow unfolded the piece of paper and then pointed at the packet "And that's a small cheering-up present for him. From you of course."

I looked at the packet again and concluded: "So SHIELD knows about Peter's spider power."

"So do you." Natasha countered, shoving the packet with the address into my direction "And it's better if you tell him you know that before… Unpleasant thing happen. Of course leave SHIELD out of it."

On the one side, I feel stupid to give Peter this packet and going all 'Yeah, I know about your powers, and here's a small present because it suits you. Do whatever the hell you want with it'. On the other side, I already feel a bit relieved that I'm finally telling him all the half-truth.

I gave Natasha a smile. "Thank you."

She waved it off and said: "No big deal."

I unfolded the paper and studied Peter's home address and made the decision to visit him tomorrow and talk to him.

oOoOoOo

"_Agent Romanoff, report."_

"_I have given her Peter Parker's address and the small package, Sir."_

"_Good. Did she… Suspected anything?"_

"_No Sir. Walker doesn't know that this is a small… Test."_

"_Well done. Report to me if there are problems."_

"_Understood, Sir."_

oOoOoOo

Okay, take a deep breath, and then slowly breathe out. In. Out. In. Out.

… That just sounded like I'm giving birth to a baby…

And now, press the door bell. Easy as pie. Except when I reach out to press it, my hand automaticall stops few centimeters away from it.

I've already tried it for five times, and every time I felt like chickening out. Surely I must have been standing here at the door for ten minutes already, looking like a complete idiot.

I feel like in those times where me and my friends were too chicken to even ask for salt in a restaurant, and we ended up arguing who should stand up and ask a waitress to get us one.

Maybe I should just turn around and go back. What if Peter is not even home now? I could come back tomorrow, or next week. Or next month. Or never.

Do I feel pathetic now.

But when I go back, I'm sure Tony will never let me live it down. I'd rather get this quickly over then being Tony's comedy source. Gathering my whole courage again and forming my hand into a small fist I lightly punched the door bell.

Nanoseconds later the door opened and Peter stood there, looking somewhat amused. Did I miss something funny?

"I thought you were never going to ring the door bell." He said, making me gap.

That asshole knew I was here and purposely didn't open the door, making me look like a complete idiot! Eh, maybe that was payback for the not picked up calls… Well, I kind of deserved it.

"How… How long have you been waiting behind the door?" I stuttered out.

"Since I uh, saw you coming. From my room. It's right… Up there." Peter pointed up at a window. His room.

Great. Even better. He saw me coming and still didn't invite me inside. I'm sure he had fun laughing his ass off behind this door. If I could, I would punch him right here, but I'm sure he wouldn't have a big problem dodging my fists, and I'd rather keep my dignity.

"Who is at the door, Peter?"An elder woman's voice could be heard from the inside and then she stepped out. Peter's Aunt.

"Aunt May." Peter stepped aside so she could take a proper look on me "That's, uh…"

"I'm Jackie Walker, a friend of Peter's." I introduced myself "May I come in?"

"Oh sure." She made an inviting gesture and I stepped into her house. Peter's aunt closed the door and then turned around to face me. "I'm May Parker."

She gave me her hand to shake and I took it. Aunt May gave me a warm smile, but it holds some sadness in it. Her eyes looked tired, and she had bags under it. I felt bad for both her and Peter.

"Peter never told me about you. I didn't know he has such a pretty friend." Aunt May said and looked at Peter with a why-don't-you-tell-me-anything-look.

He just sheepishly looked away and asked instead: "Yeah uh… Why are you here?"

"We need to talk." I said in my best badass tone I could muster "In private."

The look Peter and his aunt gave me were priceless, I almost had to burst out laughing. Luckily I could contain it. Both of them exchanged quick glances.

"Uh okay…" Peter replied, somewhat taken aback "Then we should better go… Upstairs…"

I nodded and followed him the stairs up to his room.

Actually I was pretty excited to see his room. I couldn't help but feel a bit giddy when Peter opened the door.

A mess.

His room was a mess. Not a whole mess, but still a mess. Bed was unmade, clothes were lying around, papers were scattered all over the desk and floor, and on the nightstand was a broken alarm clock. Sure, my room isn't the tidiest one, but still…

Peter's eyes widened in shock, like he didn't know until know that his room looked like this, and quickly started to pick some things and threw them under the bed.

"Yeah, uhm… It's a bit messy… Sorry…" He said nervously.

I couldn't contain my amused grin and stood at the doorway, waiting for Peter to finish 'tidying up'. H then made a come-inside gesture with his hand and I stepped in, closing the door behind me.

"Can I uh, sit down somewhere?" I asked and looked around for a good place to sit down.

"Uh yeah… Sure." Peter quickly took some books that were lying in piles on a chair away.

I put my bag down on the floor and sat down. Peter was sitting opposite from me on his bed, waiting for me to say something.

"So, I uh…" I started and browsed my mind for the correct words. How comes that every time when I'm near Peter I have trouble speaking? "I'm sorry I didn't pick up your call that day." I finally blurted out. He's a smart boy; he'll know what I meant with 'that day'.

Peter's face turned from confused to sad. "Oh… That day…" But then he gave me a skeptical look "How do you know about it…"

"I heard it from some other people that are working in the police station." I lied "I'm really sorry, Peter. I should have picked up and maybe get help and-"

He held up both hands, making me stop talking. "You don't have to blame yourself… I, I actually called you after I stormed out of the house angrily… I had a fight with my uncle…" He trailed off and then stopped talking.

For a few minutes we just sat there in a sorrowful silence. I thought about things I could say, to make him feel better, but didn't really come up with anything good, so I just darted my eyes around the room, examining everything I saw. There were some skateboards. Formulas were written on it. Posters from famous scientists like Albert Einstein were hanging on the wall. Looking at his desk, I saw a sunglasses and some paper with sketched on it. It was a rough sketch from a mask.

Peter must have noticed that I was staring at it for a while. He quickly stood up and put the sketch into a folder. "That uh… Nothing interesting. Just my homework, you know…"

With a blank face, I stated: "You're designing a mask."

"Yeah uh… My school gives us weird homework…"

"You need a mask to hide your identity when you're out looking for that thug." I continued talking.

Peter was getting visibly more nervous. "What thug?" He decided to play dumb.

Wordlessly I pointed at the wall behind him. A poster was hanging there. It showed the face of a man. I looked at Peter with a raised eyebrow and a grin, which says 'you're so busted'.

Peter let out a small whistle, scratched his hair and asked sheepishly: "Yeah… Maybe… You're not going to stop me, are you?"

I shrugged my shoulders lightly and then shook my head. It's not like I can do much to stop him. I then reached for my bag and took out the medium-sized packet with the spider silk from OsCorp and put it on Peter's desk.

He questioningly raised an eyebrow at it.

I tapped the packet lightly and explained: "Industrial spider silk, or something like that. Maybe you can use it, I dunno. You do have those awesome abilities now…"Ignoring Peter's look of shock and surprise, I continued with my explanation. "Peter Benjamin Parker, I may not be the second best in a science school, but I do know how to put one and one together. You got bitten by a spider, and magically received spider abilities. Subway incident, remember? I was there too."

Peter didn't say anything. He took the packet and read what was written on it, his face calculating, how he could use those spider silks. I sighed and stood up from the chair, took my bag and walked toward the door.

"That's all I wanted to say. I'll go now then. Bye!"

Before I could reach the doorknob, Peter grabbed my wrist. "Wait!"

I turned around to face him.

"Thank you uh, for the silk…"

"You're welcome." I replied casually.

"Listen uhm… Since you already uh, know about this everything," Peter said "you can, like, stay here a bit longer, you know… I have few ideas what I could do with this…" Peter held up the spider silk packet "That is, if you want…"

I gave him a bright smile. "Sure, why not."

He returned it with a bigger one. "Great!"

I put my bag down again and Peter took out some paper and pens. We both sat down on the floor and started to discuss and make a list about things we could do with that spider silk and how Peter could train his ability.

I mentally thanked Natasha for talking me into visiting Peter and continued writing the list.

* * *

**RANDOM QUESTION TIME**:

**PC or Mac? :P**


	8. Chapter 8

**GOT A LONGBOARD, HERE AN EARLIER UPDATE. NOW IMMA GONNA SPEND MY TIME LEARNING HOW TO LONGBOARD 8DDDD**

**oh yeah, if Peter seems a bit OOC in this chap :P**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter VIII

"So you really think those spider silk web things… Will hold your weigh?" I was sitting on a chair, one arm propped up on Peter's desk, head resting on my hand, watching how he is working on a small device.

It used to be a watch, but now it's being modified, upgraded or whatever. Point is, it's not a watch anymore. I don't know what kind of magic he used, but somehow Peter managed to turn that spider sulk into this really thick web. It looks really impressive, the web. Only side effect is that it smells like rotten egg, when being shoot out.

It was a hard fight. Me and Peter versus the rotten egg smell. We opened the window widely, trying to get the smell out. It was working, except from time to time we could hear how passing by passant were complaining about why the air suddenly smelled so bad. Hard time for us to keep out from laughing.

Oh well, it's not me who's going swing around the skyscraper with webs that stinks like rotten egg.

"Yeah, I think… According to what the packet says and what we just mixed together with it should be stable…" Peter answered "Did you even read the description?"

I rolled my eyes and let out and unlady like snort. I'm the type of person who doesn't read the description and attempts to figure things out by myself. It did sometimes cost me lots of point in class papers and tests. Points I could have to get an even better grade.

Sensing what I was thinking right now, Peter commented: "It's not bad to read the description and instruction from time to time. It safes you a lot of trouble."

"Yeah yeah, I know what you mean." I waved off and randomly started to quote a German commercial that suited to this subject "Zu Risiken oder Nebenwirkungen lesen Sie die Packungsbeilagen oder fragen Sie Ihren Arzt oder Apotheker."

Peter looked up from his work for a second, a big question mark plastered over his face, like I just spoke an alien language. "… _What?_"

"You have Google translator. Use it." Because I'm too lazy to translate it for you.

Shrugging his shoulders Peter went back to his work. Meanwhile I picked up Curtis Connors book about cross-species genetics and started to fly over it quickly. The only time where I stopped to read was when I saw pictures. Most of them were photos from different reptiles. Actually half of what's written inside is about reptiles.

Connors especially made it clear that he liked them oh-so much because they are oh-so clever and can grow their limb back when it falls off or something like that. Well, doesn't really surprise me, Connors probably wants his right arm back. So he wants to have this awesome ability too.

"Okay, I think uh, the device is shoot-ready." Peter announced and put the tools away.

I quickly shit the book and looked at that thing what used to be a watch. Now it's a useful device for shooting webs, so he could swing around like Tarzan.

"Cool!" I said "Did you already… Tested the web?"

Without replying Peter pressed a butting and with a speed I didn't know was possible for such a small thing, the web shoot out and stuck at the wall. Peter tugged at it few times, testing it's stability and with a happy smile he moved his fingers in a greedy way. I amusedly raised an eyebrow at that sight.

"Now you just have to get rid of that smell." I commented.

"I can live with that." Peter then took the empty spider silk packet and looked thoughtfully for a second, and then he turned at me "I'll probably need more of those silks. Where did you buy them?"

Damn. I was hoping he wouldn't ask me that, because I have no bloody idea where Natasha got them.

Not really looking Peter in the eyes, I replied somewhat lamely: "At uh, the OsCorp building. They had a souvenir shop." I think. I'm sure you can't just walk into WalMart and buy it there. If you need more supplies, I can get it for you, in case you don't have time and such…" I offered hesitantly.

"You… You would do that?" Peter asked somewhat not believing me.

I shrugged my shoulders casually. "Yeah. I usually have lots of free times. Beside, friends help out each other." Wow, that just sounded like a line straight from 'Kingdom Hearts'.

"… Why do you do that?"

I didn't understand what Peter meant. "Do what?"

"Uh… Help me with all these stuff…"

I stayed silent for a while and thought about reasons. Well, for number one, mostly because he's Peter Parker, I'm a huge Marvel-fan and basically I'm curios. Secondly, I feel somewhat guilty for his uncle's death and if I help him, it would lessen my guilt a bit. And lastly, maybe I just want to spend more time with him. From all the three reasons, the last one sounded like the best one. Personally I'd rather say nothing, but I don't want Peter to get suspicious, so I responded in my best it's-pretty-obvious-tone: "I like to be around you."

Awkward silence and a surprise look on Peter's face.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Way to embarrass myself. Now he must think I have a crush on him or something like that. Have I?

Peter reddened a bit and looked away with a happy smile. "I uh… Thanks?"

"… You don't hang out with other people al lot, do you?" I asked, even though I knew that Peter Parker was always a bit of a loner.

He let out a humorless chuckle. "Not, not really…"

Hm, should I press any further? But what if he doesn't really want to talk about it? Maybe I should just wait until he willingly spills out everything. Not that there is much for me to know.

I suddenly remembered something. "Uhm, is there a Mary-Jane Something at your school?"

Peter looked at me. "Not that I know. Why do you ask?"

I shrugged. "Just curios. And a Harry Osborn?"

He shook his head. I decided to drop the small investigation and looked at my iPhone screen. Five messages and two missed calls. All from Tony. I admit it's kind of weird to see so many calls and messaged from tin-man lately. It always used to be Steve's job, playing the worriedtard. But now it seems like he's too busy with his girlfriend (still having a hard time to believe it). I should be happy for him, but I still can't help but feel a bit left out and disappointed.

I checked the five messaged. Each one left me slightly worried.

_JayJay, pick up your phone._

Okay, not the end of the world.

_I'm serious, I tracked you down. What are you thinking, visiting a boy without telling me first._

Eh, still not the end of the world.

_I want to know what you're doing there. It's been good four hours now._

Oh really? I've been here that long? Didn't realize that.

_Is he your boyfriend? Are you getting laid today?_

Yup, remind me to kill him.

_Don't forget to use protection. Oh, and I demand to meet him._

And the end of the world is nigh. For Peter. Like hell I'll introduce you two science freaks to each other. What comes next, family reunion between Tony, Steve and Peter? Giggling at the thought I stood up from my chair and said to Peter: "I really have to go now, or else someone's going to throw a huge fit…"

"Worried parents?" He teased.

"Yeah, maybe." I answered vaguely, not sure if I should tell him that my mom is long dead and my father isn't even here in New York City.

Catching my uneasiness, Peter furrowed his brows and looked at me worriedly. "Maybe?"

"Look, I have to go now." I opened the door and went down the stairs. "If you need anything, just text me, 'kay?"

"Mhm, will do." Peter stood at the doorway. I walked out of his house.

"Well then, see ya!" I waved him goodbye and walked away. Turning my head over my shoulder I saw that Peter was still standing there, watching me go away. He smirked and waved frantically with his arms, looking like an idiot.

I only shook my head and laughed.

oOoOoOo

"_You got a description?"_

"_Well, no. He wears a mask."_

"_A mask?"_

"_Yeah, and most if his victims are suspects, some of them with serious rap sheets. They're calling him a vigilante."_

"_Okay, he's not a vigilante. He's an anarchist."_

oOoOoOo

_Mysterious masked man still not identified!_

That's what's written in capital letters in front of today's newspaper. Usually I don't read newspaper or watch the news, but when I took a small glance on Steve's newspaper (it was untouched, lying in front of his apartment) I just took it and read the article.

It says that New York City's streets has been a lot safer, thanks to that mysterious masked man's job. I had to smirk while I read it, knowing fully just how the man was. Oh the joy of having a shared secret. Peter still hasn't found the thug who killed his uncle though.

It's been good two weeks since Peter developed that web shooting device. Much to my luck, he didn't ask me to get more spider silk. I still have no clue where Natasha got them. Well, ever since then Peter and I hang out a lot, often looking for placed where he could train his skills in secrecy.

By the way, my science grade has improved a lot. Occasionally Peter helps me with my homework more or less.

Right now, I was sitting on one of those huge comfy couches in the Stark Tower, waiting for a certain Iron Man. He's been bugging me a lot about 'that boy who keeps stealing the Avengers mascot away' and demanded me to come to his tower straight away, or else he'll tell Steve I was seeing someone.

Normally I would start panic when that playboy threatens me with Steve, but right now I could care less. I haven't seen Steve much these days (makes me wonder if he's still alive…). I doubt Steve would even listen to a single word when someone's talking to him. Often I believe his mind is somewhere on cloud nine. I'd really like to know how Steve actually met that Peggy clone.

The elevator made an annoying ping noise and out came Tony Stark. He walked out, put some papers away and stared at me in disbelieve. "Are you reading the newspaper?"

I meekly nodded at what he said, not fully listening. Too absorbed with the article. I looked up and noted that Can-Man was still staring at me in disbelieve.

"What?" I asked somewhat rudely, still holding the newspaper.

"Who are you and what have you done with our mascot?"

I rolled my eyes and finally out the newspaper away. "For the last time, I'm not the Avengers mascot. And is it really that weird to see me reading a newspaper?"

"Well, you don't really strike as the type of person to read the news." Tony answered and picked up the newspaper.

Touché, touché.

The elevator opened again and out came Pepper Potts. I like her, she's really cool. Usually when I have some girls problem I go to her and she then tries to give me some advices, or just to have a small chat with her. Pepper knows most of the embarrassing stories about Tony (after JARVIS of course), so if you ever need some blackmail material, you know where to look for.

"Jackie has got a boyfriend and didn't tell my anything, even though she promised!" Tony suddenly accused in a childish manner, like I stole his lollipop or something, and pointed at me. Where the hell did that come from? Weren't we just talking about the newspaper? Why the sudden subject change? Pfft, really Tony, mind your own business.

Pepper decided to play along (I think) and raised an eyebrow at me, asking in a motherly if-you-don't-tell-the-truth-you-won't-get-any-cookies tone: "Is that true, Jackie?"

"What? No! Of course not! Tony's just overreacting, like always!" I argued back.

"Deny! In deny!" Tony proofed.

"Pepper!" I whined "Do something about that old man!"

I think she's enjoying herself far too much. Luckily for me she listened to my plead and walked toward Tony, pushed him into the elevator, and said something about 'Leave it to me, I'll talk to her'.

… Okay, if I didn't know better, I'd say it's like they are acting like a married couple, I'm their teenage daughter and now like a good mom Pepper is going to talk to me about my 'boyfriend' problem, which is weird because I DON'T HAVE A BOYFRIEND AT ALL.

I sat on the couch, arms crossed, pouting slightly and waited for Pepper to come over and join me. Not that I think about it, it's definitely one of Tony's plan. He's trying to get information out of me through Pepper. Bad for him I saw through his plan, because I'm not going to say any-

"Pepper, I think I have a crush on him but he likes someone else."

"A crush on who?" Pepper asked calmly and waited patiently for an answer.

Damn me and my mouth. Really Jackie, think before you speak. Think! Should I tell her everything now? What if she really runs to Tony afterwards? Though I doubt she'll really do that. But then again there's JARVIS, who might just record this conversation…

I decided to trust Pepper. I need someone to listen to my random ramblings. She seems to be the right person. Something in my mind tells me if I ran up to Natasha about all those things she'll either just tell me to bug off or ignore my presence.

"Mmhhh where do I start?" I mused out loudly "So, basically there is that one boy and we're pretty much hanging out together a lot, and well, I kind of have a crush on him, but I think he likes someone else."

Pepper nodded and asked: "And how do you know he likes someone else?"

I shrugged. "I just do." No, actually the Marvel universe tells me that. Of course it doesn't exist anymore, but I doubt that we're 'going to end up together'. I'm not even sure if I want to end up together with someone… Well, truth to be told, it was always my fangirl wish to end up with Loki…

"And what are you going to do now?"

This question got me thinking. I pressed my lips into a thin line and made some random noises while thinking. "Well, I guess nothing. It's not like I can force him to like me back. I'm not even sure if I really like him. I mean, it is just a crush. Crushes never lasts long."

"Doing nothing isn't going to help you a lot. And maybe he likes you back." Pepper tried to convince me.

Oh my god, that is like the most overused sentence.

"But there is another thing tied to this story, isn't it?" She asked, giving me a look that says 'You better tell the truth'. How comes that all the people always guess correctly? I mean come on, am I that easy to read?

I took a deep breath before answering. "Fury asked me to join SHIELD. For whatever reason I don't know."

Pepper looked a bit taken aback and surprised. Raising both eyebrows, she said: "Oh really? And do you want to join?"

"Well, that's the point. I don't know."

Sure it sounds cool, being a secret agent, going on mission and such, but if you think about it more carefully, it's actually a pretty shitty job. Think about all the training you have to go through. I know for sure that I'm too lazy to be an agent. And there is that other thing that keeps bugging me.

_Love is for children._

Can't say that I've never been in love before, but at the moment I'm in that phase where I think love is stupid, I'm better off alone et cetera. Just hearing all those relationship problems from my friends makes me glad that I'm still single. Really, it's not even my relationship and I have probably more stress about it just by listening to their whining and complaints and failed attempts to cheer them up. But I guess that's what friends are for.

Point is, I don't know if I want to give up love just for a job in SHIELD. I may not regret it now, but surely some time later. It's always like this.

"You fear that love will be in your way when you work for a secret government organization such as SHIELD." Pepper analyzed my situation perfectly.

"Mhm."

"It's you decision." Pepper started to explain "Take your time and think about it. Whatever you choose, I'll try to support you as much as I can. But remember, every choice you make comes with a sacrifice. Maybe a small one, or a big one, but you will have to give up something."

She gave me a warm smile. I returned it with an uncertain one, still processing what she just said.

My iPhone ringes, signalizing that I got a new message. I took it out from my jeans pocket to see the SMS.

_Usual place, usual time? Peter._

I didn't realize that I was smiling like an idiot until suddenly Tony popped out of nowhere next otm e, staring at the display with a knowing smirk.

"Well, better go know before you're late." He said and gave me a wink.

I blushed a bit and stuck out my tongue at him. "I'm going now. Bye!"

I stepped into the elevator, and before the door closed I got a last glance at how Pepper gave Tony a small peck on the lips.

Usual place, usual time.


	9. Chapter 9

**Cheesy things are cheesy, and so is this chapter... **

**I just realized that most of things happenen more or less in AU... I'm having a hard time writing this s**

**tory, since most of the things that happens in the movie Jackie isn't there, so I have to make up most of the things, which is a bit of a challenge for me xD**

**At this point, thank you for all the support, review, alerts and faves! Without you guys I wouldn't have make it this far, so thank you :)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter IX

„_Any progress, Agent?"_

"_Parker developed a web shooting device with the spider silk Walker got from Agent Romanoff. He is now taking down different thugs, looking for the one who killed Ben Parker."_

"_And Walker?"_

"_She's been seen a lot together with Parker lately."_

"_I see. Keep watching them and report to me immediately if there are more progress."_

"_Understood, Director Fury."_

oOoOoOo

I was sitting in Starbucks, books open, a pen in my left hand and in my right hand a calculator. Next to me was an untouched tea and a half eaten chocolate chip cookie. I made different faces at the math exercises, wondering what kind of magic spell I should use to solve it, and then typed different things into the calculator, and then choose the answer that fits in my opinion the best. Chances are high that it was wrong, but I'll compare them tomorrow with my friends solutions anyway, and perhaps just copy it from them. In emergency case, Peter can help me.

Speaking of Peter, he was sitting opposite of me, scribbling furiously something on a piece of paper. Curiosity got the better hold of me and I took a glance at his scribble. It was the first draft of the Spider-Man costume. If it weren't for the red-blue colors and the web patterns, I wouldn't have really notice that it was supposed to be the skin tight costume. Right now it looked more like a jumpsuit pajama thing.

I decided to comment on it. "You planning to go to a slumber party?"

Peter stopped scribbling and looked up at me, confusing written all over his face."Uh… No. Why?"

"Because," I responded and nodded my head at his drawing "it looks like a pajama."

He stared at it for a while, then hold it up in the air, rotated it a few times and then concluded: "It's still the rough design."

"Change the colors to green and gold and I'll love you forever." I offered, grinning slightly like a fangirl Green and gold, anyone know who I was thinking of?

Peter feigned a wounded look. "I thought I already have your love forever." He joked "And green and gold are a horrible combination."

Loki would disagree with you. But then again, I think that the God of Mischief is the only one who can wear those colors and pull it off well.

"If you say so. Not that you put your pajama into the wash machine later and get a purple one."

"Work uniform, not pajama." Peter corrected me.

I rolled my eyes. "Einstein junior, I'm sure that a work uniform isn't supposed to look like a pajama."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Shouldn't you be doing your homework?" He pointed at my stuff.

I packed them into my bag. "I can do them later." And took a sip from my cold tea. I looked out of the window, watching the passing people, and then spit out my tea when I saw just who entered Starbucks.

Penny for those who tipped on Steve and Peggy clone.

Poor Peter almost jumped out of his seat when I spit out my tea. "Hey, everything okay?" He asked worriedly.

"No." I croaked out, while quickly cleaning the table with a tissue "My neighbor is here with his girlfriend. Don't turn around!" I warned Peter as he tried to look over his shoulder.

I tried to make myself small, not wanting to be spotted by Steve. I really don't want to get introduced to his new flame, partly because she looks a lot like Peggy and I'm a bit outraged that he got himself a girl just because she's got lots of common things with Carter. And well, I just don't like her for no reasons.

Too late. Steve already spotted us. He looked a bit surprised to see me slumped back into my seat, and gave me a small wave. In return I have him thumb up. Peter of course being curios and all, just had to turn his head around to get a look on Steve, who in return, as he saw that I wasn't alone here at all, furrowed his brows in confusion, and then glared at Peter slightly.

And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Steve took Peggy clone's hand and pointed at our table. I carefully looked around to see if there were any free seats where they could sit (possibly far away), but no, luck wasn't on my side, and every table were occupied. Peter and I just had to take a table for four people. Meaning there are still two seats free. For Steve and that woman.

"Hey Jackie."

"Heya!" I replied somewhat sarcastically "Fancy seeing you here with…" I trailed off and looked at his girlfriend with a criticizing. She flashed me a friendly smile, which I returned with a strained and fake one.

"Can we sit here? There aren't any free seats left…" Steve asked and pointed at the two free seats.

"Sure." Peter said before I could say that they should bug off. We both took our bags from the seats and put them down on the ground.

Steve took the seat next to me while his girlfriend sat next to Peter, opposite of Steve, looking at him with those huge love sick eyes.

Awkward silence.

Peter, who looked slightly imitated by Steve, scratched his neck nervously and tried to avoid eye contact with him while I just stared into my now empty tea cup.

Steve coughed to get our attention. "Erm, Jackie," He said and pointed at the Peggy clone "This is Maggie McCartney. And Maggie, this is Jackie Walker."

Realizing that those two lovebirds have no idea who the nice lad was, I introduced them Peter too. "Steve and Miss… McCartney," I tested out her name for the first time "This is Peter Parker. And Peter, that's Steve Rogers. And his girlfriend."

Both men shook their hands and smiled somewhat awkwardly at each other. And then the all too familiar silence returned.

Ground below me, please open up and make me disappear from this world!

oOoOoOo

"_Director, we just received a report from out undercover agent in OsCorp."_

"_I'm listening."_

"_Apparently that day when Parker went to OsCorp, he gave Dr. Connors an algorithm. It seems like it was what he needed for his cross-species genetics research."_

"_And?"_

"_On the same day they tested it out on a three-legged mouse, Freddie. The report says that Freddie's fourth leg successfully grew back."_

"_Hm, interesting. Let the agent stay there to continue his work. Tell him to report immediately when something seems… Wrong."_

"_Understood, Sir!"_

oOoOoOo

Peggy clone does sure talk nonstop like a waterfall. I swear my ears were going to fall off if I kept listening to her ramblings. It would have been a lot more tolerable if her voice wasn't that shrill and high pitched. Really, when I saw her for the first time I thought her voice would be soft but firm.

Steve didn't say much at all. In fact, he only nodded at every word she said, sometimes giving his comment. That was it. Maggie just kept talking and talking. I bet she could talk about three different things at the same time. And another thing I don't like about her is that when she speaks to someone, she doesn't directly look into the eyes.

It makes me wonder how a silent guy like Steve met such a talk active woman like her. But then again, people do say that opposite attract each other.

Peter and I couldn't stand to sit there any longer, so we silently sneaked off. As silent as it could be. I felt a bit guilty for leaving Steve there alone, but only a little bit.

Peter skated on his skateboard in a slow pace to keep up with. We walked through the streets of New York City, looking here and there at some shop windows, commenting about the stuff the sell.

I suddenly stopped walking, making Peter almost crashing into an old lady, but thankfully to his spider powers he could avoid that, saving him some awkward moments

"Why did you stopped walking?" Peter asked, jumping down from his skateboard.

I pointed at a shop on the opposite side of the street. "There is a shop that sells sport stuff." I explained.

He raised his eyebrow, obviously not knowing what he should do with it.

"Uhm, you need a spandex maybe? You know, for your Halloween costume…" I reminded him.

Peter's face lit up in realization. "Ah okay… So the pajama got upgraded to Halloween costume?"

I rolled my eyes, but couldn't contain the grin that was now on my face. "You want to check out the shop or not?"

Scratching his head, he thought for a while, and then said: "But spandexes are always so skin tight…"

"Well established."

"… And what kind of super hero wears a skin tight spandex to go out and hunt down the bad guys?"

Hm, where do I begin? There is Captain America, Hawkeye and Natasha. All three of them wear skin tight spandex.

"Since when are you a hero?" I asked.

Peter shrugged his shoulders. "Since right now."

Despite what Peter said before about spandex, we crossed the street and went into the sport shop. It had lots of different sport equipments, from rugby ball to tennis ball, from bikini to skiing suits.

We quickly went to the male clothes sections, looking for a spandex. It didn't take us too long to find them. What did took us a long time was finding the 'correct' spandex, as Peter always says it.

And here I thought only girls need a long time to pick up clothes. Well, Peter even needed longer to pick up one stupid spandex.

Honestly, I feel like one of those boys who are doomed to go shopping with their girlfriends, and they have to sit hours in front of the changing room, waiting for them to finish trying on the clothes. I really hope Peter's not going to make me carry his shopping bags.

"It's… Really tight." Peter called out from the changing room.

I groaned. "Then pick a bigger size!"

"I already did." He responded "It's still too tight!"

"For Odin's sake, it's a spandex, it's supposed to be skin tight!"

"For Odin's sake?"

"Don't ask." I warned, unwillingly standing up to get him another spandex.

I walked back to the men clothes section, trudging toward the spandexes and looked for a bigger size.

"This is the men section." A strangely familiar voice said behind me.

I whipped around to meet the owner of the voice. Clint Barton.

Not sure if I should be happy to see him here or be embarrassed because I'm browsing spandex for men. Eh, I should look it this way: I don't know Birdy very well and therefore I don't really care what he thinks of me buying a skin tight suit right now.

"Nice to see you too." I greeted him with an annoyed look.

Clint simply looked at me with analyzing eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for some bigger sized spandexes," I explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world and then turned my voice so loud that Peter in the changing room could hear it "Because a certain someone eats way too many pizzas!"

I waited for a reply, which came few seconds later. "I've heard that!"

Clint remained impassive, shrugged his shoulders and walked away from me, probably pretending like he doesn't know this weird chick. Well, if I were him I'd do the same thing.

I saw hoe he walked to the cashier with three different sunglasses. Yeah, I can totally imagine how during a battle when on sunglasses breaks Clint would just take a new one out. Like Rude from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children.

Picking up a size bigger spandex I sulked back to the changing room, where Peter was still waiting for me.

"Here." I said. He opened the cabin door, took the spandex, closed the door and tried it on.

"Who was that?" Peter asked, referring to the small word exchanges between me and Birdy.

"Robin Hood's descendant." I responded.

He didn't ask any further, thankfully.

Silently I prayed that the suit would fit so we can finally go out of this shop. My prayer was answered by God. Peter stepped out of the cabin, back in his normal clothes and payed for the spandex.

He promised me to show his Halloween costume when it's ready. I wondered how he was planning to make those web patterns. Apparently he had some knitting skills. Immediately I had the mental image of Peter sitting in a chair and knitting a scarf. That thought made me giggle.

Then I had to think back about my encounter with Hawkeye in the shop. Something back in my mind tells me that it wasn't coincidence.

oOoOoOo

"_Ahem, you know, in the future, if you're gonna steal cars, don't dress like a car thief, man."_

"_What, are you a cop?"_

"_Really? You seriously think I'm a cop? Cop in a skintight red and blue suit? You know, you're… You're… You got a mind of true scholar, sir."_

"_Just let me go."_

"_Is that a knife? Is that a real knife?"_

"_Yes, it's a real knife?"_

"_My weakness, it's small knives."_

"_Just let me go."_

"_Anything, but knives! … Oh, it's so simple. That was cool, man."_

"_What the hell is that?"_

"_Webbing that I developed with a friend. I don't think you really wanna know anymore right now."_

"_Come on! Let me go!"_

"_Okay, one second! One second!"_

"_Come on, let me go! Stop it! That isn't funny!"_

"_It is kind of funny."_

"_Come on! Help! Help!"_

"_Shh! … This could have gotten a lot worse. Now, hold still… Oh, the boys in blue are here! I got him!"_

oOoOoOo

Steve, who was currently occupying a chair in my kitchen, was impatiently tapping with his fingers on the table. I just sat opposite of him, scooping a spoon Häagen-Dazs ice cream into my mouth, reading 'Crank' from Ellen Hopkins.

Hm, when was the last time Steve sat in my kitchen like this?

"So." He started a conversation "Who was that boy from today?"

"Peter Parker." I answered, eyes still set on the book.

"Are you two… Dating?" Steve asked carefully.

"Nope no." Though I wouldn't mind if we were…

… Where did that come from?

Steve nodded, and exhaled through his nose, carefully thinking about his next sentence. Too bad there won't be a next sentence, because not it's my turn to bomb him with questions.

"How did you met… Maggie McCartney?" I still dislike the sound of her name when I speak it out. I'll probably never like it.

"She uhm, she works in the British ambassador. She actually just moved here."

I furrowed my brows. British ambassador? Didn't Natasha say that she's a fine-art student? I'm confused now. I have to be tactful now. How does one get the right answer out of a person without them suspecting that you did some small research before?

"What were you doing in the British ambassador?" I made my first move.

"Oh, I didn't meet in her in the ambassador. I actually met her in Brooklyn, when she was drawing something. She's partly art-student."

Case closed. Well, I have to say, that was easy. Works in the ambassador, but is also a fine-art student. And dating a super solider at the same time. I'm impressed, but still not going to change my opinion about her.

"Well, then she's only going to stay here for few years, isn't she?"

Steve gave me a quizzical look. "Why that?"

"Uh well, because people who usually works in the diplomatic service in a foreign country for about three or four years and then after that they have to move away." I explained to him, looking up from my book.

Steve turned his head to look at the window, staring at it thoughtfully. "Maggie never told me about that…" He muttered under his breath.

Should I be surprised about that? Maybe she didn't tell Steve about it because she doesn't want him to think about it too much. I for my part don't really care whether she's going to move away or stay here forever. Point is that if Steve really loves her a lot, he's probably going to suffer a huge heartbreak if Maggie leaves the States. Unless of course they break up years before her depature and maybe Steve will recover until then.

Hm, that would be Steve's second heart break, wouldn't be?

I wonder how Thor is actually doing in Asgard, knowing that his beloved Jane is here on Earth. He didn't even get the chance to visit her that time. And what about Natasha and Clint? Obviously there is something going on between them. Natasha says it's a debt, but I think there is more than that. Maybe they are just too scared to admit their feelings to each other because of their jobs in SHIELD…

Would I be able to follow that one rule if I join SHIELD? It's not like you can choose whether you want to fall in love or now. It's something that just suddenly happened. No choices. No asking for permission.

"… Do you like him?" Steve, who watched me with studying eyes, asked.

I blinked a few times, processing the words he said. "I… Yeah, I do. A little bit. Maybe."

Steve didn't say anything.

I went back to my book. Kristine, the protagonist is now wondering what her first real love, Adam, is doing. Does he have a new love now? How are things going on between him and that other girl? Those questions made her a bit sad.

Those questions made me a bit sad too. I often caught myself wondering how things are between Peter and Gwen. I never asked Peter about her.

At the end, is there only going to be a broken heart?

oOoOoOo

"_Freeze! You in the tights, don't move!"_

"_You serious?"_

"_Who are you?"_

"_No one seems to grasp the concept of the mask."_

"_Freeze!"_

"_I just did 80% of your job! That's how you repay me?"_

* * *

**BTW, the Ask blog for the Avengers guideline is ready :D it's a Tumblr blog: asktheavengersguideline**_  
_

**Feel free to drop off a question to anyone of the avengers you want to ask (including Loki, Jackie Peter :P)!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright, I'm back from Schulbrücke Weimar 2012 :D It was really fun, met lots of cool people, wish I could have stayed there longer than. Here an update for you :)**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter X

„_Thirty-eight of New York's finest, versus one guy in a unitard. Am I correct?"_

oOoOoOo

_I felt almost human again._

_Tiptoe to my room, up a darkened hall, _

_Past closed door._

_I wondered if I'd ever feel completely human again._

A tapping sound.

I stopped reading and listened carefully. The only sound in my room right now is the music coming from iTunes. _Volare_ by Gypsy Kings. Dismissing the tapping sound I just heard few seconds ago I returned back to my book.

And the tapping sound returned. I looked up again from my book and stared at the window. It was closed, and no one was outside. I hope. Just in case, I stopped the music and continued reading. Of course this time I made sure to keep an ear open.

There was it again.

Okay, there's definitely someone outside. I out my book aside, jumped down from my bed, and carefully stalked toward the window. I looked out of it, but couldn't really see anything. It was already pitch dark outside. A sign that fall has finally arrived. The window remained close, because I'm too chicken to open it. What if something jumps inside and kills me?

Just when I was thinking about getting Steve, something big, red and blue appeared in front of my window.

I let out a scream and stumbled a bit back. Clutching my XL-shirt, I tried to calm down a bit, and took a closer on that thing outside my window.

Turns out that thing was a person, hanging upside down. Said person waved at me and tapped the window again.

"Can you open the window?" Came out the slightly muffles voice from Peter Parker.

Nodding my head, I took a deep breath and opened the window, letting him into my room. Peter made a perfect salto and silently landed on his two feet. Respect.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

Peter stood up and stretched his arms. "Showing you my pajama-Halloween-costume." He answered and made a full 360 degrees turn, to show me his skin tight costume.

I looked at it from head to toe and pursed my lips. "Not bad, Peter, not bad." And here I was, doubting his knitting skills. But now I know better.

He took off his mask and shook his hair. Putting down his back pack, Peter looked around in my room. I silently complimented myself for tidying it up today, or else he would have seen the mess.

I looked at his back pack. "What are you carrying with you?"

"Oh, just small thins, you know… Cell phone, a small first-aid kit, my camera…"

Camera? The same one I accidently 'stole' and returned it to him afterwards?

Peter walked around a little bit in my room and looked at my book shelf and then at the wall next to it. There were some posters and photos hanging on it. Before all… This happened flyers from 'Avengers', 'Captain America' and 'Thor' used to hang there, but now they are gone, along with the whole Marvel universe. Sad isn't it? I had to replace them with photos.

Peter looked at each one, asking some questions. He then pointed at the photos of Thor wearing sunglasses and making the peace sign. It was quickly taken before he and Loki went back to Asgard. "Is that one of those super heroes from the Manhattan incident?" He asked curiosly.

"Mhm." I replied.

"That's uhm… The God, righ?"

"Yup."

"… Is he really a God?" Peter doubted.

I merely shrugged my shoulders as an answer, meaning that I'm not going to answer that question. I really don't like where this is going…

"Uh, if you don't mind me asking… How did you get involved in this whole… Thing?" And there is the one million dollar question.

What should I say now? I wanted to watch a movie but instead found myself in the movie with no way back? Seems like a bad idea to me. Especially since I still have SHIELD on my tail… There were times I thought it's the best I tell Peter the 'truth about Jackie Walker's origin', but a second voice argued that he would just think I'm insane and never want to do anything with me again. And that thought made me sad.

"How much do you know about me and my 'relationship' to this incident?" I decided to ask first. And depending on how much Peter knows, I'll think about whether I should tell him a bit or not.

"Well… I read few articles on the Internet." Peter listed "The most famous one was about the departure from those Gods… And you gave the bad one a hug…"

My eyebrows rose higher as he continued talking. Well, so Peter doesn't know much at all… Just that I gave a super villain a hug. Actually I'm surprised that SHIELD didn't like, deleted those articles. I always thought super secret organizations are always trying to keep a low profile.

"So I thought since you had the honor to actually say goodbye to them you should at least have a 'special connection' to them…" Peter finished explaining.

I pressed my lips into a thin line and stared at the photo of Thor. None of us said anything for a while.

Peter then opened his mouth to deliver something, but I quickly cut him off: "I… Somehow got dragged into this mess… That's all I can tell you…" For now.

He looked at me for a long time, waiting patiently for me to continue telling my tale. When Peter realized that I most likely won't tell him more than that, he pulled out a chair and sat down, looking somewhat… Disappointed. But why? Because I couldn't tell him everything?

"You never tell me much about you…" Peter suddenly pointed out.

I face him with a surprised look. "I don't?"

He shook his head.

Hm, that's weird. Judging from all those times I spend with him I thought I'd tell him a lot about me. I for my part know a lot about him already. Oh yeah, maybe I don't tell him much because most of the stuff is super secret. Still there was a small guilt in my chest. Now I felt like I owe him something.

I sighed, run a hand through my unkempt hair and stared at the window, wondering what I could tell Peter about me. He was currently playing with my Sideswipe Transformers playtoy.

"Okay." I announced and got his attention "Let's play twenty questions then."

That way Peter can learn a bit more about me, and I well, I'll just expand my knowledge. I sat down on my bed; legs stretched out and leaned against the wall, hugging a pillow.

Peter, playing the gentleman, said: "Ladies first."

"Merci beaucoup mon cherie." I mocked "Where did you learn to knit?"

"Still doubting my kitting skills?" Peter answered and twirled around on my chair "Aunt May taught me that. It was forced, but soon I found it was actually pretty fun."

"Oh okay. Your turn now."

"Wait, lemme think… Uhm, what do your parents do? I mean, like what jobs…"

Already trying to get some background information about me?

"My father leads a company or something like that, I don't know, I barely talk to him let alone see him." I informed him bitterly. Suddenly the conversation between me and Loki in the Helicarrier months ago popped into my head. The things he said hurt a lot, and it was kind of true that I didn't really had a good father-daughter relationship with my old man. But then again, who was he to judge that? Wasn't he the one with the biggest daddy issue?

Peter looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but didn't ask any further, probably sensing that this was actually something I don't like to talk about.

"My turn now." Before I could think of a good question, police sirens could be heard from outside. Peter got up from my chair and put on the mask. "Duty calls, sorry. I'll text you later!" He grabbed his rucksack, shot out a web and swung out of my room.

It smelled faintly like rotten eggs. I see, he still hasn't got rid of that horrible smell from his web.

oOoOoOo

"_Did you make up your mind already?"_

"…"

"_Thought so. What is it that you're so hesitant about, Walker?"_

"_Yeah, well, I find it a bit weird that you, the great Nick Fury, wants to recruit someone like me… And I'd like to know why."_

"_That is for SHIELD to know and for you to find out."_

"_Doesn't help me a lot."_

"_You are being watched by SHIELD anyway, because of the whole Tesseract story and other things. Joining SHIELD would make everything a bit easier. For you and for us."_

"_I doubt that everything's going to be easier."_

"_You are already showing great potential, you just don't know it yet. You'll make a great agent."_

"_Oh, really?"_

"_Think about it. It is a one-chance opportunity. Don't miss it."_

oOoOoOo

"What are you reading, JayJay?"

"My French book. I have a class paper tomorrow." I replied and turned to the next page. Barely three months school and the first class papers were already announced a long time ago. Now all I have to do is study, study and study, until I fall dead over. Well, technically this is my own fault. I could have started days ago with studying; instead I pushed everything to the last day before the class paper. Like always.

Mentally promising myself that for the other tests I would start studying earlier, I grabbed a hand full Jelly Belly's and put them into my mouth.

Tony quickly used the opportunity to snatch my French book and skimmed through the pages.

"Hey!" I protested with my mouth full, trying to get my book back, but Tony only held it higher. He read out loud a passage from the text in semi-broken French.

"Can I have my book back now?" I interrupted him rather rudely, and swallowed down the last Jelly Belly.

Tony gave the book back to me, saying something about me not understanding a small joke. Just then Bruce walked into the room with some papers in his hands. For the last past months, he's been given a room in Stark's tower. There he has been doing stuff whatever those two science bros do.

"I heard you finally met Captain Roger's girlfriend." Bruce mentioned while sorting out the papers and putting them neatly into a folder. I wonder if the results from my blood samples are in them. I just had my monthly Tesseract-in-blood check schedules in Stark's tower. I'm glad it wasn't in the Helicarrier. No matter how cool that flying fortress is, I don't think I'll be able to survive another meal on board. Another good thing is that I got rid of those SHIELD band-aid. The bead thing is not that it got replaced with STARK band-aid.

"Yeah, I did." I confirmed "I'm not impressed."

"You don't like her?" Tony joined the conversation "Jealous?" He wiggled with his eyebrows suggestively.

I rolled m eyes in annoyance and looked back into my French book again. Truth to be told, I don't really feel like studying anymore. Looking at the clock, I saw that I already have studied for… Twenty minutes. I think I deserved a break now. The funny thing is that my break is always longer then the time I spent studying.

"How's things going on with that Parker boy?" Tony asked casually, while opening an alcohol bottle. Bruce was still sorting the papers, but I'm sure he's listening too.

I shot Tony a disapproving look, which he waved off easily. "Uh, what should I say, we haven't seen each other for three days already because both of us have to study for school." And one of busy wearing a spandex and doing some thug-hunting. I sometimes call that 'thunting'.

"Jackie." Bruce called me whole comparing some papers with each other "I want you to take a look at this."

I did as he said and walked over to him. Bruce placed four papers on the table. "So, there might be some minor… Complications." He carefully started to explain.

I raised an eyebrow. "Uh, okay… ?"

"How about you start to describe what's on the papers first?"

Describing what's on the paper? Why can't he just tell me straight what's wrong with me? I quickly overflew the papers and described: "There are diagrams on each paper."

Bruce waited for me to continue, which I did. "Uhm, each diagram has got different balk… The x-axis shows the substance contained in a blood and the y-axis the amount of them in percent…"

I felt like in school again. I took a few seconds to look closely on what was written on the x-axis. One of the things was marked as 'Tesseract'. Starting from the first paper, there wasn't a balk or a number. But on the second paper, there was a decimal number in percent written on it. It says 0,5%. It's a pretty small number, and the balk wasn't visible yet, but still it worried me a bit. Onto the next. In the same spot, the number increased a tiny little bit. 0,9%. My heart started to beat a little bit faster. Still I continued looking at them. The third paper now. 1.3% A small balk was visible. Taking the risk to look at the last one, I gulped and read the printed number. 1.7%, and the balk was a bit taller.

After seeing this, all I could say was: "Why?"

Bruce shook his head and looked at me apologetic. "I honestly have no idea."

I slumped down on the couch and ran both hands through my hair, letting out a deep tired sigh. "Shit." And just when I though I everything is alright now, something has to get into the way.

Fuck you, Tesseract.

oOoOoOo

"_Where were you?"_

"_I was out."_

"_Did you get the eggs?"_

"_Nope. Forgot the eggs! I'm gonna get it now."_

"_No, you most certainly will not! Not at this hour! … Look at me, Peter? Take off the damn hood and look at me... Where do you go? Who does this to you?"_

"_Please go to sleep, Aunt May."_

"_Please tell me."_

"_Aunt May, please, please please go to sleep!"_

"_I can't sleep! Don't you understand? I can't sleep! … Peter, listen to me. Secrets have a cost, they're not for free. Not now, not ever."_

oOoOoOo

Finally after a week full of class papers, class papers and some more class papers my beloved weekend arrived. Which means I'm seeing Peter again.

By the way, the French class paper was horrible. I'm sure I fail it.

I shouldn't have seen the blood sample results. For the last few days, I couldn't think of anything else, thus making it a bit hard for me to focus and more important things. Right now my mind was also occupied with those thoughts.

Peter was talking. About what, I have no idea. I wasn't really listening. We were sitting on a bench in Central Park. The leafs turned red already, each one falling down from the tree to the ground. It was getting colder and colder each day.

He suddenly poked me from the side. "Jackie? Jaaackie? Are you listening?"

"Hm, what?" I said absent minded "No sorry. Can you say that again?"

"How did your math test went?"

"Shitty." I replied.

Peter raised both eyebrows but didn't ask any further. I looked at my wrist, and wondered how the veins would look like if the amount of Tesseract energy were higher. Hopefully not blue. I glanced at Peter and saw that he wasn't in his best state either. He had bags under his eyes, some cuts and bruises on his face (that healed rather quickly though). He looked worn out, because of all the times he spent at night fighting the crime.

"You know…" I slowly approached the subject "Maybe you should, like, take a break for once. From fighting the crime, I mean…"

Peter turned his head around too look at me with those huge, tired brown eyes. "I can't." He whispered.

"Why not?" I asked.

He didn't reply, just sat there silently.

I sighed. "Does your Aunt know about… Your 'job'?" I admit it's a stupid question. Of course the good Aunt May doesn't know about Peter's double life. If she did, I'm sure she would put him under house arrest for the rest of his life.

"She uh… She stays up and always wait till I'm back home…" Peter confessed and fiddled with his fingers, sounding guilty.

"She's scared to lose you too." I summed up.

"What?"

"Your parents died, that was definitely a loss for her. Your uncle died, that was a big loss for her too, and now she's afraid that one day you won't come back again." I explained, somehow getting a bit more frustrated with each explanation. "Peter, stop making her worry that much about you and be a bit, I don't know, caring about her feelings?"

"I know, I know. It's just… Since I already have those spider powers, I believe I should use them for the good…" Peter murmured.

"Maybe you shouldn't have got bitten by those cross-genetic spiders from your dad…" I randomly commented but then quickly clamped my hands over my mouth. I just spilled out a piece of information he's not supposed to know that I know from his dad's filed in SHIELD.

At first, surprise was written all over Peter's face, but then he narrowed his eyes and asked in a low voice: "How do you know that my father worked on that?"

"I… Uh… " I stammered nervously and tried to think of a good excuse. Unfortunately my mind was blank, I couldn't come up with a good and believe able lie.

So instead I remained silent.

Seeing as I don't have anything to say anymore, Peter continued talking: "You, you know a lot things that I didn't know at the beginning. Like, that one comment after I got bitten," Oh yeah, I said hopefully he won't turn into a spider "after that the spider silk," Well, that was Natasha's idea, not mine "and then your suggestion to use a spandex. It's like… You already knew this all was going to happen."

I bit my lower lip. I guess I have underestimated this whole situation. Sooner or later Peter will get a bit suspicious, he is a smart boy after all, I just always hoped that this moment wouldn't come so… Fast.

"And I think there are still a lot more things you're not telling me." He concluded.

"Look, Peter…" I started to explain "I… I'm sorry, really… It's just… The situation is really complicated for me and… I just _can't_ tell you everything because…

"Why?" He asked, looking really sad and disappointed "Is it a secret?"

I looked at the ground and responded in a small voice: "Yeah, it's a secret."

"Best friends don't keep secrets from each other."

It was a normal statement you hear basically in every movies or books. And yet it's a statement that feels like a punch in the gut. Peter saw us a best friends (while I kept wondering whether we were close friends or not) and I just destroyed that friendship by not being honest with him. I could tell him everything now, the whole story maybe, but I didn't.

Few minutes past.

Peter let out a tired and somewhat frustrated sigh, grabbed his bag and left.

Before he disappeared completely out of my eye sight, he turned around and said: "Secrets have a cost, they're not for free. Not now, nor ever. That's what Aunt May told me. Remember that, Jackie."

And I guess my secret just cost our friendship.

oOoOoOo

"_Cross-species genetics is finally working. I've used lizard DNA to help Freddie regrow that limb."_

"_It's a miracle."_

"_No, it's hard work and a promise, and it's a step closer to the primate lab."_

"_Ah, but he doesn't have time for every little step."_

"_Little?"_

"_I just mean he can't wait."_

"_Well, he'll have to. Unless he wants to be a lab rat."_

"_That's not what I'm saying."_

"_So what are you saying?"_

"_You have to start human trials, now."_

"_No, I don't. And no, I won't."_

"_Well, then he's going to die."_

"_People die, even Norman Osborn."_

"_We are not finished."_

"_Human trials? Where on Earth are you gonna find the people to volunteer?"_

"_The wards, as far as anyone's concerned, it's for a winter flu shot. I might think that veteran's hospitals a place to start."_

"_You gotta be kidding me?"_

"_I don't think I am. It's a little late for shock and indignation, Curt. About fifteen years late."_

"_I've no idea what you're talking about?"_

"_Richard Parker wore it well. On you, it's a cheap suit, as it was then."_

"_I have nothing to do with that."_

"_Is that what you told his son, Peter?"_

"_I don't know what you're saying."_

"_You don't know, or you don't wanna know? … I'll remind you what happened. Richard Parker said just about the same thing then that you are saying now. The clock is ticking, Dr. Connors."_

"_I uhm… I won't."_

"_Fine. The formula is ours now, anyway. Say goodbye to that arm you dreamed of. I'm shutting it down. Have your office cleared out by the morning, your toys could be taken away too, you know? Right, Freddie?"_

* * *

**uhm yeah, the fight at the end of this chap kind of turned out totally random, but it is an important part for the plot more or less xD**_  
_


	11. Chapter 11

**Yes, I'm well aware that I didn't updated last week, and to be honest, I almost forgot to update today too (was lying in bed, when it suddenly came into my mind... OTL)**

**So yeah, I'm a bit sad that the guideline is finished now, but fear not, my loyal minion, for in its sequel Peter Parker shall appear :P**

**And I'm not really satisfied with this chapter, so maybe later I'll come back and change few things. Lately I've been having trouble typing the next few chapters... Not sure if it's a writer block or just my lazyness... BUT, I have fall holiday now and I'll try to get as many chapters done as possible :D**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

**P.S.: THERE IS A SHIPPING NAME FOR JACKIE AND PETER NOW, IT'S CALLED _PACKIE_ 8DDD thanks to anon who send me a question on tumblr about their relationship :P**

* * *

Chapter XI

"_How's it going?"_

"_Where are you heading?"_

"_Uh… Monday, B-track."_

"_It's Thursday."_

"_It's Thursday?"_

"_What happened to your eye?"_

"_Where?"_

"_Your eye, it looks bruised."_

"_Oh! Yeah, yeah! I don't know. Maybe I got a rash."_

"_It's pretty bad. Have you gone to the nurse?"_

"_Mmhm."_

"_Do you like Brazino? … Like the fish?"_

"_Mmhm. No, I know. I know. I know."_

"_Well, if you want, you can come to this address at uh… At eight o'clock. My mom's making Brazino, so… And Captain America is coming too!"_

"_Captain… America?"_

"_He fought during the second World War and recently in the Manhattan Incident. My dad's a big fan of him and he always wanted to have him at our dinner table, so…"_

"_Uh, okay…"_

"_Oh, it's apartment twenty sixteen. I didn't… I didn't write that part down. I don't know why I didn't."_

"_I'll remember it."_

"_Twenty six."_

oOoOoOo

Physically, I'm fine.

Emotionally, I'm totally done.

After Peter left that day, I sat on the bench for a long time, my mind keep replaying the event that happened. I ought to have my mouth shut sewn in situation like this.

Peter is made at me. Like, really really really mad at me. Well, he didn't shouted or made a scene, but I can tell that he doesn't want to see me for the rest of his life. I did try to call and text him, but Peter didn't answer, so I just gave up. I decided that maybe we should just take a time out.

Hate to admit, but this situation is took a harder blow on me than I imagined it would. I should have just told him everything right from the beginning, but nooo, I was too chicken.

For once I was unusually silent, sitting outside on the Stark Tower balcony, one arm propped up on the table, chin rested on my hand and I stared at the tall building in New York City.

Next to me was sitting Steve, who was looking at the same thing I was staring at. Both of us were lost in thoughts. I'm actually a bit surprised to see that he's here too (especially since he doesn't like Stark's tower) and isn't spending every single of his free seconds with that Peggy clone. Ah well, guess it shows that Steve's still functioning somewhat okay. Speaking of her, American Boy asked her about her diplomatic service job thing. Turns out she's actually moving away in like, five months. That's probably why she's in a somewhat gloomy mood.

The cold wind blew into our face, but I didn't mind it at all.

From far away, I could make out the silhouette from Iron Man, who was getting closer and closer. He gracefully landed on his tower, walked down the stair confidently while JARVIS automatically took off his suit.

Tony walked to us with open and welcoming arms. "Hey, what is with those faces you two are making? Did something happen?"

Yeah, Peter isn't talking to me anymore, and it's slowly killing me from the inside. And the amount of Tesseract energy in my blood is increasing by 0,4% each month.

Tony took out a chair and joined us.

"Oh, come on, light up a little. Your negative moods are making me a bit guilty." He said.

I raised an eyebrow at him. Tony feeling guilty over something he isn't responsible of? Well, that's new to me.

"I mean, I'm here having a really good time, and you two are so… Emo right now. It's killing the good atmosphere in my tower, you know."

Steve snorted at this comment, stood up and went inside. Obviously he isn't enjoying Tony's presence.

"Someone's having the time of the month here." Tony joked.

"Uhm, Steve's a guy." I pointed out "Therefore he can't be on his period." Unless he meant me.

"Yeah well, but you have to admit, from all the Avengers, I'm the manliest one he the girliest one."

Hm, if I remember correctly, from the whole superfamily idea, isn't Tony the 'motherfigure' for theit adoptive son Peter Parker?

When Tony saw that I didn't give my usually sarcastic and unnecessary comment back, he said: "Okay, there's definitely something wrong, and I want you to tell Uncle Tony everything."

I looked at him from head to toe, pondering about whether he's really a good choice or not. I have my doubts there. But then again, Pepper is working right now and I want to talk to someone.

Should I really take the risk and tell Tony what happened? I chewed on my lower lip, thinking hard. Meanwhile Iron-Man got himself a bottle of Whiskey.

Okay, so that's the deal: My friendship with Peter is hanging on a thin line, and I'm not sure if the line already snapped into two pieces or not, I need someone to give me an advice. Doesn't matter how shitty it is.

I took a deep breath. "He's mad at me."

"Who?" Tony asked and opened the Whiskey bottle "That Parker boy?"

I nodded. "It's because I'm keeping this really… Huge secret," I spread my arms wide to show him what I exactly meant with huge "and well, Peter said that best friends don't keep secrets from each other."

"He somehow has got a point there."

"Yeah, but my secret is like, the secret of a secret." I tried to explain.

Tony poured the Whiskey into a glass before responding. "I don't get to know that secret, do I?"

I shook my head.

"And what are you going to do now?" He asked and took a sip. Well, I've been asking myself the same question for quite a time now.

Shrugging my shoulders, I stared into the distance. "I tried to call Peter a few times, he doesn't answer, so I'll just let it be."

"Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt?"

Tony pointed at the arc-reactor on his chest. At first I didn't get what he meant, but then I understood it. He asked if my heart hurts. Fugitively of course.

I didn't reply, mostly because I didn't know the answer for myself. Does it hurt? I am sad that Peter and I had a fight. And it's not helping a lot that I currently have a crush on him. Not sure if I should say that it's a good thing we're not in a relationship. But I have no idea if my heart hurts or not.

Somehow sensing what I was thinking, Tony stretched his arms and commented: "I always thought you had a crush on Reindeer Game."

Waving ma hand in a 'you're dismissed' fashion, I said: "I'm over him, like, for a long time now…" But then I snapped my head at Tony in shock and surprise. "Wait what, how…" How the hell does HE know I had the hugest teenage crush on Loki? I mean, Iron-Man doesn't know I'm from another dimension and stuff…

Much to my dismay, Tony's face morphed into a knowing smirk. "I have my way to get those kind of information. But honestly," He leaned a bit in "what is it that you find so _attractive_ about him?" The billionaire playboy asked and wiggled with his eyebrows.

Not meeting his eyes, I listed few things: "Uhm yeah… His eyes… And his hair…" His high cheeckbones, his sexy voice, the way he walks and talks, that ovaries-exploding smirk that is somehow arousing at the same time and how Loki does what he wants, including me. Ehehehe.

"Your lack of response shows that you still have feelings for Loki." He analyzed. Since when did he turned into an expert of love?

I glared at him. "You make it sound like I was in love with him or something like that." Which is highly impossible, because in that short amount of time I spend with Loki in real life just showed to me what an actual asshole he was. Contrary to what I always thought, it actually made me hat him a bit more. But just a tiny little bit.

"You sure your mind isn't just making up the crush on Peter Parker just to mend your broken heart?"

Furrowing my brows, I gave Tony a weird look. He merely sat there and returned the look. Making up a crush on someone just to mend my broken heart? Broken heart? Hello, do I look like I'm totally heartbroken that Loki is in Asgard? No.

Tony suddenly moved his chair a bit closer to mine and took my hand into his. Adapting a fatherly manner, he sighed and said: "Jackie, I really hate to be the one to tell you this, but… Loki is a really bad man."

"God." I corrected him.

"Right, a really bad God. You deserved better." He patted my hand and waited for some reaction out of me.

Time to turn the tables. This time I took his hand, and adopted the manner of a psychologist: "Tony, please be honest with me."

He nodded.

"Have you been watching and soap operas lately?"

Tony blinked, and then thought hard. "It could be. Pepper has been showing me lots of soap operas…"

"Yeah well, here's a tip: Stop watching it."

I dropped his hand and leaned back on my chair. Hate to admit it, but somehow Tony's weird analyses have branded themselves into my brain. And now I have to think about them. Why does everything always has to be about Loki? Bastard just has to make my life difficult, even though he's not even here! Tom Hiddleston, you professional life ruiner.

And I still haven't solved the problem between me and Peter.

"You know what I always do when I have too much thoughts in my mind?" Tony asked.

"Drink the problems away?" I replied sarcastically, motioning to the now empty Whiskey bottle.

"That too." He said and then pointed at a weird machine attached to the railing of the balcony "Bungee jumping."

I looked at the thing and then grinned.

Bungee jumping doesn't sound bad at all. Why not?

oOoOoOo

"_Sir, we received another report from our undercover agent in OsCorp."_

"_What is he reporting?"_

"_Dr. Connors injected himself with the serum and collapsed afterwards."_

"… _Tell him to get sampled from the serum. And what is Peter Parker doing?"_

"_He is now hunting down criminals in a full spandex suit. We managed to take some photos."_

"_Good. Keep the observance on both person. I'll send Agent Romanoff to visit Walker."_

"_Understood, Sir!"_

oOo

"_Hi! How did you get out there?"_

"_The fire escape. Your doorman's intimidating."_

"_That's twenty stories!"_

"_Yeah, it's alright… This is your room?"_

"_Yes, this is my room."_

"_Book. Pictures… But somehow different from Jackie's…"_

"_Sorry?"_

"_Uhm, nothing, nothing. Just talking to myself…"_

"_Okay…"_

"_Oh, hey, uh… I got your mom these."_

"_Oh, lovely! They're beautiful."_

"_They were… They were nice."_

"_No, they're beautiful."_

"_I'm sorry."_

"_No, it's impressive. They're actually held together very well."_

"_I'm gonna keep these."_

"_Do you have your suit in there?"_

"_My… Suit?"_

"_For dinner? Captain America will be here too… Not in his uniform of course, so… Are you gonna… Are you gonna wear that? That's uhm… That's…"_

oOo

"_Emma, it's Curt. Is he there?"_

"_I'm afraid not, doctor. The car's taking him to the veterans hospital in Brooklyn."_

"_No, no, no! He can't, Emma. You… You have to stop him. He… He…"_

"_I would, but I always lose him when he's on the bridge. I'll make sure Dr. Ratha returns your call as soon as possible."_

oOoOoOo

Slumber Party at Jackie's home. Party guests: Just me and Natasha.

Should I be worried that Natasha turned up at my doorway suddenly at nine o'clock with sleeping back and pillow under her arm even thought she knows I have school tomorrow?

Yeah, definitely.

But I didn't want to be rude and slam the door in front of her nose, so I had no other choice then invite her in. And I had the feeling that she'll find a way to get inside anyway. Truthfully, I'm actually glad to have a girls night out. Although I'm far from being friends with Natasha, it felt good to have someone from the same gender to talk to.

Natasha and I made ourselves comfortable on the carpet in the living room. Next to us a big bowl of chips, lots of unhealthy drinks and the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack running in the background. Papers and documents were scattered all over the floor, questions here and there being answered.

With her help I was filling up the application for joining SHIELD. It's still not my final decision yet, but seeing as I'll need help with filling all those things I guess it's better to start now and have someone to guide me.

And we're not even halfway through the papers. SHIELD really does want to know every single detail about you.

I put down the pen and shook my hand. It hurt a bit from all the writing. Meanwhile Natasha was munching on some chips and looking through my Facharbeit. It's a ten page essay every student has to do in my school in the tenth grade. I wrote about the traditional Chinese medicine with the main area acupuncture in biology. Truth to be told, I only chose that subject because I thought my biology teacher would know jackshit about Chinese medicine. And maybe I would easier get a better grade. Well, the next day he handed me a 300 page book about traditional Chinese medicine, as a help for my Facharbeit. Although I've only read the first 30 paged of the book and the rest was purely relied on internet research. Still I managed to get a 2- (in the American marking system it would be a B-). Could have been better, but I'm satisfied with that mark.

"You decided to give up love for joining SHIELD?" Natasha piped up. It sounded like an accusation.

"I'm not giving up anything, I'm not even entirely sure about joining…" I trailed off.

The Black Widow looked up from my Facharbeit. "How about, let's forget SHIELD for now and just focus on something else."

I waited for her to continue.

"Do you know Gwen Stacy?"

I slowly nodded, wondering where she was getting at. I've met Gwen like, three times. She seems nice. And she's got feelings for Peter. And he returns her feelings (probably). Which makes me sad and slightly jealous, although I should have expected this.

"Did you know that Steve is currently sitting at their dinner table?"

I opened a bottle of Ice Tea and added: "Well, Gwen did tell me that it was her father's dream to invite American Boy over for dinner."

"And did you know that Peter Parker is there too?" Natasha informed me.

I almost chocked on the Ice Tea and had a coughing fit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit, I really hope Steve isn't going to tell the story how I managed to fall up the stairs in publicity and then tripped over a dog. I especially pray that Steve isn't going to ask Peter why we're not talking anymore. Well, on the other hand, if he does, I think Stevie would understand it. Or not.

Not really having to say, I took the pain again and continued filling up the gapes. Then a question popped into my mind. "Wait, don't I need the signature from a legal guardian?"

Natasha shook her head. "In this case no, not really. You're a full SHIELD member when you're eighteen. If you join now, then more as an intern. But," She searched through the paper and took out the contract and pointed at it "once you sign this, there's no going back."

"Okay, got it." I mumbled and grabbed a hand full chips.

Natasha stood up and came back with my box of nail polish collection and started to paint her finger nails. I collect those things. Right now I have around 78 different colors, which means I can indeed color my fingers in ten different shades of green. The color she picked was cherry red. It suited her well.

"What happened to the spider silk?" She started, carefully painting her ring finger now.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Turned into a web shooting thing that smells like rotten eggs." I replied.

"Interesting." Natasha responded and inspected the now fully painted left hand.

Way to kill a conversation, woman. I picked out two different nail polishes and started to paint my nails too, always adding some striped or dots or small flowers on it. While doing that, my mind unintentionally wandered to the conversation with Tony.

Few hours ago I believed it was just bullshit what he said, but now I'm not even sure anymore. I really like Peter, he's a cute and gunny guy, and there are times where I wondered how it would be if we were in a relationship. But the more I think about it, the more unrealistic it seems to me. Maybe it's true that I'm just _thinking_ I have a crush on him. The part with Loki is just… No, I'm not even going there.

I mean, I am already in the Marvel-universe, friends (more or less) with all the heroes, and basically living happily ever after. A pretty big achievement for someone like me, if you ask me, but there is no way in hell I'm going to end up with one of them.

After a long time of thinking I came to the (unlogical) conclusion that I can't just sit around, waiting, wishing and hoping that in some miraculous way someone's going to fall for me. Because this isn't fanfiction or the wildest imagination of a fangirl. No, that is just how life is now.

I stared out of the window into the restless city night, letting the nail polish dry and wondering what Steve, Peter and Gwen were doing.

oOoOoOo

"_Well, that was something."_

"_I'm sorry. I thought he was gonna arrest me at one point."_

"_Nah, I wouldn't have let him arrest you. But I didn't know you already met Captain America, or Steve Rogers, before."_

"_Neither did I, actually… It's a long story… He, he's the neighbor from a… Friend of mine."_

"… _Jackie Walker?"_

"_How do you-"_

"_She uhm, picked him up at the police station once, when Mr. Rogers was holding a speech. So I figured out they were somewhat good friends… How's she anyway?"_

"… _Fine. I think. I don't know…"_

"_What happened to your face?"_

"_I wanna tell you something."_

"_Oh! Okay."_

"_I've been bitten."_

"_So have I."_

"_Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I gotta tell you this one thing. I gotta tell you this one thing. It's about the vigilante and the car thief, right?"_

"_Oh. Okay."_

"_No! No! I don't wanna talk about your dad, I wanna talk about me. Okay?"_

"_What about you?"_

"_I… I wish I could just… I can't! It's hard to say."_

"_Just say."_

"_No. No."_

"_Say it… What? What?... Oh, I'm in trouble."_

* * *

**Reading through this chapter just makes me realize how stupid the beginning actually was xD but I just felt like bringing Loki into it again... **_  
_


	12. Chapter 12

**It's currently one a.m. in the morning right now and I caaaaaaaaaan't sleep. So I decided to update this story today instead of tomorrow :P**

**I just started typing the last chapter of One Step Aside. So, only three more chapters to go and then I can start to work on the 100 theme challenge :D**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

**P.S: oh yeah, since there is a shipping name for Peter and Jackie (PACKIE, thanks to Goddess of Jasper) someone asked for the shipping name of Loki and Jackie. I was thinking that LOCKIE would be the best one :D (thanks to guest reviewer for the suggestion). **

* * *

Chapter XII

„_At approximately 9 p.m. last night an incident took place on the Williamsburg Bridge. Much of what occurred is really speculation at this point. However, several eye witnesses to the crime as well as our own prepreliminary finding, have positively placed one individual at the sense, which is why this morning I'm issuing an arrest warrant for the masked vigilante, known as Spider-Man."_

oOoOoOo

"How was dinner?"

"Alright. Although I had some trouble eating the Brazino."

I made a face. "The what?"

It was after school now. I was a tad bit surprised to see Steve in front of my school, waiting for me. Apparently he got a message from Fury. There is some issue he wants to talk about. I don't know why eye-patch wants me there though.

Seeing the confused face I was making, Steve tried to explain: "Brazino? You know, the fish…"

"Pfui. I hate fish."

"There are lot of things you hate." He pointed out.

Touché.

We walked in silence for a while. I'm dying to know if something happened during the dinner, since Peter was there too. But alas I don't know how to approach that subject, so I'll just have to wait until Steve says something. Luckily I didn't have to wait.

"… Your friend was there too."

"What friend?" I played dumb.

Steve rolled his eyes at my failed attempt. "Peter Parker. He was acting really… strange."

"Define strange."

Steve furrowed his brows and searched for the right words. I waited patiently and kicked a stone off the pavement.

"Captain Stacy and Mr. Parker had an argument about that masked man who hunts criminals." He told me.

I think I know where this is going…

"Any you're telling me that because?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing. I just thought you might want to know."

Thanks for telling me, but I hate to tell you that Peter and I aren't talking to each other anymore because of various reasons.

We took a taxi to get to the airport, where Natasha and Clint were waiting for us in an airship. That's our transport to the Helicarrier. Before arriving at the airport I made sure that we made a quick stop at McDonald's. Past experience taught me they've got shitty food on the Helicarrier. Many people would argue now that McDumb (that's how I usually call McDonald's because it's shorter) hasn't got any decent foods et cetera. Well, compared to that dogshit the flowing fortress serves McDumb is a dream paradise for starving teenagers.

Now, with a McDouble and a McFlurry I stepped into the conference room, where Bruce and Tony were already waiting.

Seeing the unhealthy stuff I was eating, Bruce gave me a disapproving look and pointed with his thumb toward the bin at the corner of the room.

Like I'm going to throw my dinner away now.

Finishing my meal quickly I put my school bag down on the floor and sat down between Tony and Bruce. Steve sat down opposite of us. Captain America dunked his Chicken McNuggets into the sweet-sour-sauce and took a happy bite. Apparently he didn't like the food here either. Well, that makes two of us. Anyone else?

Nick Fury entered the room. May I have some dramatic background music please?

"Gentlemen, ladies," Fury addressed to us "thank you for being here. As some of you may know, yesterday there was an attack on the Williamsburg Bridge."

Was there? I should have paid more attention when people in my school were talking about it.

"Of course the New York Police Department only has some speculation about who or what it was." He continued and then pressed the button of a remote.

Pictures magically appeared on the wall. It showed the bridge with some cars standing upside down and half destroyed. People were running around. Nick Fury zoomed in at a specific point of the image. It showed Spider-Man fighting against something that looked like a giant lizard.

I have bad feeling about this.

Tony let out a whistle and said: "Another wanna-be hero in a spandex?" Referring to Peter. Steve only glared at him.

Hey, is that how you talk about your future adoptive son Peter Parker?

"Let's focus in the lizard first." Fury said and took a laser pointer out of his pocket, which was a ball pointer pen at the same time. I want one too.

The red dot pointed at the lizard, and at the same time some data appeared next to the photo. Too lazy to actually read them, I just quickly scanned it. Well, most of the things I couldn't understand anyway. The only thing that caught my eye was the name Curtis Connors. Hm, should have known that he was bad news.

"Hey, it's that reptile lover!" I mentioned.

"Curtis Connors?" Tony asked and looked at me "I remember him a bit more… Human. And with only one arm."

And I remember him as a creepy bastard who 'wants to create a world without weakness'.

I carefully glanced over to Bruce, who was writing something down on a piece of paper. Lots of unfamiliar symbol and not a single number. To him, it makes sense. To me, it's like trying to decode hieroglyphs. Although I'm sure even that is easier.

I turned my gaze back to Fury, who was now telling is some background story about Connors. Bruce was writing, Tony not really listening and I'm trying to figure out why I'm here. It seems like only Steve is paying full attention to the SHIELD directors rambling.

I'm sure I would have fallen asleep in the next five minutes if I hadn't hears Peter's name.

"… Created the serum thanks to Peter Parker's algorithm formula. According to one of our undercover agent in OsCorp Dr. Connors injected himself with the serum and then passed out. Later he most likely turned into that lizard."

"So basically, he's a human-lizard cross-species now." Bruce concluded and finally looked up from his paper.

Oh, so he was paying attention too.

"Correct." Fury confirmed Banner's statement.

I decided to speak up. "Well, that's interesting and all, but what the hell am I doing here?"

Fury fixed his gaze on me. "I think you know the answer."

Yeah, I know it, but I refuse to accept it.

"Peter Parker is a successful human-spider cross-species,, thanks to the research of his father, Richard Parker."

I didn't like the tone he used about Peter. It made him sound like he was a lab rat.

"Nice to know SHIELD has been keeping tab on him too." I remarked sarcastically.

Fury made the wise decision to ignore my comment and went back to talk about the mysterious serum. I heard how Steve kept mumbling something under his breath, trying to put the pieces together. Then his face lit up.

"That Spider-Man," Captain America pointed at the picture from the lizard and spandex boy "is Peter Parker. But then that means…" Now he looked at me "Did you know about his power?" All eyes were on me now, waiting for me to say something.

I opened my mouth. "Uh yeah, maybe, a little bit."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Steve accused me now.

I didn't reply. And it wasn't helping that Tony was kind of rubbing salt into the wound. "That's why you've been seeing him so much in the last past months."

I simply shrugged my shoulders, and then nodded meekly. There wasn't much for me to say.

Nick Fury sighed. "Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark, here is a sample of the serum." He gave them a test tube filled with a neon green substance "I want you two to analyze it and perhaps find an antidote."

Bruce took the test tube. Both of them walked out of the conference room, leaving me, Steve and Fury alone.

oOoOoOo

"_It's so beautiful."_

"_But it's got a bite though!"_

"_Who else knows about this?"_

"_Just…"_

"_Me?"_

"_Yeah. And uhm, Jackie Walker."_

"_Oh…"_

"_You don't… You don't believe what the police are saying, do you?"_

"_Of course not. Does it scare you, what you can do?"_

"_No. No."_

"_What did that thing on the bridge look like?"_

"_Real big. Too big to be human."_

"_You gotta lay low."_

"_No, can't do that."_

"_But you've got to. I mean, why?"_

"_Because of last night. Those people on the bridge, whatever is attacking them, when it killed them. So I gotta… I gotta go after it."_

"_But that's not your job."_

"_Maybe it is… I really liked kissing you. You're an amazing kisser."_

"_Well, you know, it was… it was good for me too."_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Mmhmm."_

oOoOoOo

Nick Fury and Steve Rogers sat there silently, processing the things I have just told them. Well, actually only Steve is trying to process all the stuff. Fury apparently knows most of the things. Something tells me that he planned it all… I mean, it couldn't be pure coincidence that Tony gave me the invitation to the internship at OsCorp, right? And then Peter popped up too.

I think it's because SHIELD knew that sooner or later Peter will start to look for answers about his father and eventually it would lead him to Curtis Connors.

And suddenly the whole world made sense to me now.

They needed more information about Richard Parker. And Curtis Connors. Knowing that I'm from another universe/dimension/whatever, where all those things exist only as comics, books, movies et cetera, Fury naturally came to me to ask for more information. Bad for him I didn't know much. Well, I knew that Richard Parker's son was going to be Spider-Man, but I didn't consider it as important that time. Anyway, SHIELD needed someone to befriends Peter Parker, so they could easily shadow him. I'm sure they thought 'Let's use that girls, because she doesn't know jack shit about what's going on, and it will make our lives easier'. Of course being the asshole they are I wasn't told about it. Not sure if SHIELD now got what they wanted, since me and Peter aren't in any good terms anymore.

Nick Fury stood up. "I will go now. I have some paperwork to do." And left the room.

I was thinking about going away too when I heard Steve saying: "And where do you think you are going, young lady?"

He said young lady. Well, that's not a good sign at all. When Steve says 'young lady' it usually means he's somewhat upset with me. When Steve says 'young lady', it means he's also very disappointed. And when Steve says 'young lady' it means I'm in deep shit.

I tried to play it cool. "Uhm, back to my assigned room?"

"You knew Peter parker is going to be Spider-Man from the beginning, didn't you?" He started with the semi-interrogation.

I slowly nodded my head, not meeting his gaze. Sometimes I forget that Steve knows I'm not from 'here'. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a tired sigh. "You know, it's really not easy for me to look after you if you keep hiding things from me."

"Well, you don't have to look after me." I replied defensively "It's not like I'm you responsibility or anything." Not trying to sound accusing or anything, but I have been feeling a bit left out since Steve has got a girlfriend. It's not a nice feeling, you know.

Steve looked at me for a long time. "You don't fully trust me, do you?"

"Yeah well, neither do you." I retorted coldly.

Ignoring what I said, he continued: "You're still having trouble accepting this all."

And with 'this all' I guess Steve meant movie being reality and all that jazz.

Suddenly feeling really tired I sling my bag over my shoulder and walked out of the conference room. Before leaving completely, I said over my shoulder: "I don' think I'll ever get used to this. Not now. Not ever. I simply don't have the strength for that."

Steve didn't say anything to that.

oOoOoOo

"_It's not nice to snoop. I gave everyone the week off."_

"_Yeah." _

"_Shouldn't you be at school?"_

"_No, I got a… I got a free track. I wanted… I wanted to ask you a question. How would a predator track a reptile?"_

"_Oh, they don't. Most reptiles are at the top of their respective food chain, kings of their domain."_

"_But they gotta have vulnerabilities, right?"_

"_Why the sudden interest in the cold blooded?"_

"_Just asking a question. I got… I got… I got school stuff, biology profiles to do. So, because of the cold blood, would they react to sudden changes in temperature?"_

"_You'd have to catch one first. Did you know there's a rumor of a new species in New York? Beautiful and quite large."_

"_What do you know about it? Have you seen it?"_

"_Well, it's not classified. But it can be aggressive, if threatened."_

"_Doc, are you alright?"_

"_Never been better, Peter. Never been better. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. I have a new project I'm working on and I need to be alone. Don't worry, Mr. Parker. I'll be back… Wonderful things are coming. Wonderful things."_

oOoOoOo

"_Mr. Parker, why are you not in school?"_

"_Got a free track."_

"_Okay. Well I do not have a free track, so make your point quickly."_

"_Okay, fine. There may not be a dinosaur running around Manhattan, but there is something more dangerous, and I know who it is."_

"_You know who it is?"_

"_Dr. Curtis Connors, he's a biochemist…"_

"_Of OsCorp?"_

"_That's right."_

"_Okay. Dr. Curtis Connors who's also my daughter's mentor. Is that who you're talking about?"_

"_That's the one."_

"_You know, recently Dr. Connors gave Gwen a glowing college recommendation. It was beautiful, when I read it I cried. But you would have me believe that in his spare time he's running around dressed up like a giant dinosaur."_

"_Not dressing up and not a dinosaur. He has transformed himself into a giant lizard."_

"_Let me ask you a question. Do I look like the mayor of Tokyo to you?"_

"_I'm telling you the… I'm telling you the absolute truth. This man has worked for his whole life on cross-species genetics. He lost one arm and has been trying to grow it back, but there is something imbalanced by the equation and he has turned into a full lizard. He's using the lizard DNA. He is dangerous! And he's planning something horrific. I know! I know!"_

"_Okay. Alright. I get it. Here's what we're gonna go. You're gonna go back to hanging out with the citizen of Tokyo, and I'm gonna go back to protecting the citizens of this fine and fair city of ours. Sergeant Butler, would you please escort Mr. Parker back to school."_

"_Captain Stacy, I'm not… I'm not messing around. Just bring him in, just call him in! You have to call him in! He is a danger to everybody! Just, please, listen to me!"_

"_Jimmy, give me everything we have on Dr. Curtis Connors. Okay? Right away."_

oOoOoOo

What does one person do when they want to get some information about something? Go to Google and look it up. In my case, it would be trying to find a picture of that giant lizard from yesterday's incident on the Williamsburg Bridge. Unfortunately there weren't lots of photos on the web. But instead you could read lots of stuff about Spider-Man. Rumors, stories and an arrest warrant, personally announced from Captain George Stacy this morning.

Well done, Peter Parker.

I closed my laptop and stood up to make myself a hot tea. My homework was lying on the table, untouched and unharmed. For now. On the top of the schoolbooks was the thick folder from SHIELD. There were only four or five pages left for me to fill out, and I can tell you, I'm glad when this is all over.

It's been almost one and half week, and Peter and I still haven't made up. I've given up a long time ago to try to call him and stuff. He doesn't call back either, so I guess things are probably done between us. Chances are also that he's now together with Gwen, since he was invited over to dinner and stuff. I don't know, and I don't even want to know.

While waiting for the water to stop boiling, I looked out of the window; I looked out of the window. Even at night New York City is restless. Clouds were hanging in the sky, covering the stars.

oOoOoOo

"_Dr. Curtis Connors. Current temperature; eighty nine point seven, steady for forty eight hours. Blood panels reveal lymphocyte and monocyte reading consistent with subject's past. Clotting rate vastly improved, marked enhancement in… in muscle response, strength and elasticity. Eye sight similarly improved. Subject no longer requires corrective lenses. This is no longer about curing ills. This is about finding perfection. In attempt to regress regenerative relapse, dosage has been increased to two hundred milligrams."_

oOoOoOo

"_You stopped me once. You won't stop me again! I'm getting stronger everyday!"_

"_Oh, that sucked!"_

"_Peter Parker!"_


	13. Chapter 13

**Riiiiiight, so instead of obsessing over PKMN BW2 like I planned to I'm busy playing The World Ends With You: Solo Remix, and DAMN, the second Game Master is HOT. Makes me want to write a TWEWY fanfiction :P**

**oh yeah, I apologize for the shortness in this chapter...**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter XIII

„_Peter Parker. Spider-Man! I'm not the one who needs help! There will be no more loneliness, no more outcasts. Species wide distribution could enhance humanity on an evolutionary scale. One has to adapt to survive. Without changing likeness I might be free to cast off flesh wherein I dwell confide. Would you give it all up, after all you know you can do? I can save them! You're not gonna get in the way of my plan, Peter Parker!"_

oOoOoOo

I didn't know that I fell asleep in the kitchen until I heard the familiar sound of something tapping against the window.

Well, this time it was more like a banging.

Tiredly I lifted up my head, linked for a few times and looked around somewhat disoriented. The time says 9.36 p.m.

The banging sound came from the kitchen window. I narrowed my eyes to get a better look at what's outside, but then widened at the sight.

A wild Peter Parker was standing outside.

His left arm was clutching over something that looked like a mean gash wound, the right hand pointing at the window making gestures that I should open it.

I rubbed my eyes for a few times just to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating or anything. And then I quickly stalked over to the kitchen window and let Peter in. He quickly jumped in and then slide down the wall onto the floor.

Giving me a crooked, awkward smile he said: "Hey Jackie." And then let out a painful groan.

Instead of greeting him back I simply yelled at him. "What the hell Peter, you can't just pop out of nowhere with a huge wound over your chest, expecting to catch up some stuff!"

He cringed at what I said. Before he could even reply something, I sprinted to the bathroom to get the first aid kit and then back to the kitchen, where Spider-Man now made himself as comfortable as possible on the chair. I prepared a cloth and a bowl with hot water, and opened the first aid kit, taking out the things I'll need. Bandages, bandages and bandages, a scissor and in emergency case a needle and threat.

And before you ask, no, I've never stitched up a wound together. But that's what a neighbor is for, right? I'm sure Steve knows one or two things about stitching up a wound. The question is only if he's willing to help me. Eh, I'm sure he will.

I looked at the now ripped up Spider-Man costume and the wound. Taking a deep breath, I announced: "You need to take of your costume." While saying that, I blushed a bit.

"Wh-What?" Peter stammered out.

"Your costume. Off. Or else I can't clean your wound." I explained.

"Oh right. Sorry."

I inwardly gulped and then started to clean the wound, always making sure to not meet his face. Peter didn't say anything, just watched how I did my work. I could feel his eyes on me, burning a hole.

Tons of questions were running through my head right now. What happened? What is he doing here? Is he still mad at me? Why isn't he saying anything? And what the hell is even going on now? I really wanted to ask him all those questions and yet I find myself not able to form a normal sentence. So instead I concentrated on cleaning the blood.

Truth to be told, this heavy and stretching silence between us is literally killing me. I'm glad though that at least I have something to do. Putting the now blood soaked cloth away I looked at the now cleaned wound. The three gashes were stretching from his left shoulder across his chest down to his right hip. Now that it's clean it didn't look that bad anymore. In fact, I'm pretty sure that due the spider powers Peter is even healing a lot more quickly than a normal person. Meaning I don't have to stitch up his wounds. Good for me, because I'm sure I would have messed up everything and/or have to get Steve. After what happened on the Helicarrier I really don't want to see him again for the next few days.

I motioned Peter to stand up and lift his arms so I could wrap up his torso with bandages. He did as I told him. I secured it with a double knot to make sure that the bandages and eventually the wound wouldn't open up again.

"Thanks." Peter mumbled softly.

"You're welcome." I replied and then tried to start a conversation, which was quite a challenge because a) I haven't seen him for a long time and b) I keep thinking back to our fight and I'm scared Peter is going to bring that up. "So, what happened exactly?"

Peter shrugged his shoulders and then nervously scratched his head. "I was… Down in the sewer."

Okay, that explains why you're smelling a bit.

I arched an eyebrow. "Do I even want to know?"

"Uhm, I was… I was looking for some reptiles."

"You do realize that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles aren't real, right?" I couldn't help but say that, it was such a fitting moment. Grin.

Peter threw me a glare and didn't say anything. Basically it means 'You know why I was there, don't play dumb'. So I dropped my amused grin and turned serious.

"Fine, okay. You were lizard hunting. And probably got into fight and has to escape, because you got wounded." I summarized and crossed my arms. Still it doesn't explain what he's doing here. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy to know that Peter came to me when he's wounded and hurt. It's just that I am still not ready and prepared to spill out my darkest secret to him. I wouldn't mind to make things up with him though.

"I had… I had some trouble swinging around with three big gashed. And I was right near your apartment building so…" Peter started to explain.

I nodded my head in understanding, not needing any further explanation.

"Captain America is your neighbor." He suddenly pointed out.

I furrowed my brows and wondered how the hell he knew that. But then I remembered. He had dinner with the Stacy's and Steve Rogers aka Captain America.

"Yeah. How was the dinner?" I asked, with the intention to find out if Peter has already made the next step with Gwen already. Not that I'm jealous or anything, just slightly curios. Really, I mean it was clear from the very beginning that those two are going to end up together, so why did I even bothered to develop feelings for him?

Sometimes I wish there was such thing as a feeling-eraser or memories-eraser, because I sure have lots of feelings and memories I want to get rid of. But alas the technology isn't that far developed and I still have to wait a couple of years until some genius kid come along and invent this eraser. Hopefully I'd still be alive to use it.

Peter looked down at the floor, but had a pretty happy smile plastered on his face. "It was… Okay. Like, in a really good way okay."

That answer just totally confirmed my hypothesis. Judging from his happy smile something good happened between him and Gwen. Should I push the subject further? Although I doubt Peter is going to tell me much, since we're not really all buddy-buddy again…

A really ugly feeling inside me started to grow. Jealousy, and a bit hatred toward Gwen, although she really doesn't deserved it. Still I can't help but feel this way right now.

"How have you been lately?" Peter politely asked, trying to make a civil conversation instead of just standing there in an awkward silence.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Fine." Not. School sucks, Tony keeps bugging me about my not existing love life, Bruce worries about my current health status, and Fury keeps pushing me about the SHIELD business. Oh, and not to forget that I currently have some alien substance in my blood.

"That's… Good." Peter said, not really believing me that I'm fine.

"Yep."

So many things I want to say and talk about, but so little courage to do this. That's me. Always keeping stuff and my problems to myself, until someone comes along and tried to get some piece of information out of me. And then they leave, because I'm a stubborn bitch and won't tell them jackshit.

"So yeah…" Peter began and grabbed his backpack "I have to… Go now…"

I nodded and opened the window for him. I doubt he'll use the door. Peter climbed out of it. He turned around for a last time, and gave me an apologetic look. I frowned, not knowing why he would do that. Then he shoots out a web and swung away.

I stood at the same spot until Peter completely disappeared out of my eye sight. Letting out a heavy sigh, I ran a hand through my hair and returned to my homework.

Honestly, I don't think after what just happened I'll be able to do some schoolwork now. Fuck them, I'll do them later. Packing my books away, I had the feeling that something was missing, but couldn't really put my fingers on what it exactly was.

That was until later when I was already lying in my bed, tossing the sheet around, it hit me what it was. The thick folder with the SHIELD guideline and stuff I had to fill out. My mind wandered back to Peter's apologetic look, and suddenly it made click in my mind. Bastard took the folder with him.

oOoOoOo

"_Sir, we've received a report from Dr. Banner and Mr. Stark. It seems like they have successfully created an antidote."_

"_Good. Any reports about Peter Parker?"_

"_According to the tracking device we planted in his camera he's supposed to be somewhere down in the sewer for several hours now. But that's highly not possible, because an agent reported he's been seen at Walker's apartment."_

"… _I want you to send an agent out and track that place in the sewer to retrieve the camera. Perhaps we may find some clues about Dr. Connors current hide out."_

"_Understood, Director Fury!"_

"_Oh, and Agent?"_

"_Yes Sir?"_

"_Send Agent Romanoff and Barton out to deliver the antidote to Walker. Tell her to give it Peter Parker."_

oOoOoOo

"_No where to hide, Peter. All these souls, lost and alone, I can save them! I can cure them! There's no need to stop me, Peter!"_

"_You're not thinking straight, doc! Stop this! This isn't you! Let's talk this out!"_

oOoOoOo

I'd be a bad liar by saying that I wasn't skipping school, which is totally the case right now.

My plan for today was to wake up, go to school, survive it, go to Peter and get my stuff back.

And that's how my plan actually went: I overslept, didn't went to school, and dropped off at the Midtown Science High School, with the intention of just walking into Peter's class and demand to give me the folder back.

In case I'm interrupting the teacher's lesson, I'll just have to let out some tears and tell him that 'because of an urgent family issue I have to get Peter. I even took the taxi'. Remember, readers, if you're ever stuck in a similar situation as mine, just say you had to take the taxi. Taxi is the magic word. Then the teacher would soften up a bit and let you do what you want. Works the best of course if you're not going to the same school. Trust me, I know that from experience.

Preparing myself for a small drama, I stepped into the front yard of the school. Memories came back into my mind, where Peter was lying on the ground, being bullied by that Flash something guy. That time he wasn't able to defend himself, but now I'm sure he can throw a proper punch.

Right now, students and teachers were running out of the school building like headless chicken, fearing for their lives. I had to step aside to let them through and hoping not to get stomped by them. I didn't know what was going on, but my instinct told me it has got something to do with Peter. I quickly pushed myself through the crows and walked into the building.

Question: How does a directionally challenged girl find out what is happening and where it is happening?

Answer: Simply follow the destructed path and the battle cries.

It wasn't that hard to miss: Everywhere there were giant claw marks on the wall and footprints on the floor that looked like dirt water straight from the sewer. It also smelled a bit after it. Nope no, sadly those are not Ninja Turtle footprints.

The footprints led me to a classroom. Without thinking, I stepped into the room and tripped over something, almost falling flat on my face. That would have been bad.

I looked over my shoulder to see what it just was and then wished I hadn't done that. Lying on the ground was a lizard tail. A cut off lizard tail.

Gross gross gross.

Turning my head around, I saw the lizard being trapped on the wall with webs, struggling hard to get free. It then spotted me and stared at me with those yellow eyes, narrowed, and then widened in realization. Connors probably recognized me.

I'd just love to take my time and describe how Dr. Connors looks like as a lizard, but currently I'm distracted by the image of Peter holding Gwen in his arms.

"I'm gonna throw you out the window now." Peter deadpanned.

Lol what?

Gwen, who couldn't believe what she just heard, asked: "What?"

She then looked around in panic, eyes then landing on me, shocked and surprised. "Jackie?!" Gwen called.

Peter whipped his head around to look at me. I can already imagine his surprised look under the mask. And maybe a little bit pissed off. I mean, I did interrupted his loved dovey scene moment. Peter then quickly destroyed a window with a trophy, grabbed Gwen and then threw her out, but not before he shot out a web so she would at least have a safe landing. And then he walked over to me.

I backed off and told him seriously: "You're not going to throw me out of the window."

"What are you doing here?" Peter hissed, half worried, half angry.

"Uh well," I started and crossed my arms "you took something of mine and I'd like to have it back."

"Now is not the right time!"

How the hell was I supposed to know your school is going to be attacked by the Lizard? Just as in cue, the sound of something being ripped off and landing on the ground could be heard. The Lizard managed to free itself and is now ready to rip peter into pieced, if not including me.

The Lizard started to charge toward our direction. Peter quickly pushed me out of the way, and then jumped onto its head. Connors desperately tried to shook him off. It looked like rodeo rising.

"Run, Jackie!" Peter commanded.

I'd love to run away if the Lizard wasn't moving the whole time with you sitting on top, making it a little bit difficult to find the right time to make a dash for it.

The Lizard managed to get hold of Peter. It grabbed him and threw him against a door like a raw doll. He crashed right into it, disappearing in the small room. Connors then turned around and slowly made its way to me. I was still sitting dumbly on the floor, way too scared to move away now.

Suddenly the Lizard was swept off his feet by someone. And not, it wasn't a boy in a blue-red spandex. The person had short red hair.

"Natasha!" I said, surprised to see her here.

She quickly took out two pistols and began to shoot at the reptile. It hold up its two arms, trying to defend itself from the bullets, and flinched here and there. But still it looked pretty much unharmed. It seems like Natasha ran out of bullets. She threw the pistols away and began to charge toward the Lizard, planning to fight it with bare hands.

Meanwhile Birdy appeared next to me and helped me up onto my feet.

Wow, Natasha and Clint together on a mission, what's going on?

Peter then finally got back on his feet too. He looked at me and Birdy somewhat surprised, and then back at the Lizard, who was currently busy fighting with Natasha. And it seems like she's got the upper hand.

"Nat, you've done enough! Leave the Lizard to Spider Boy!" Clint called and then turned to Peter, Stretching out a hand "I'm Agent Clint Barton from SHIELD."

Peter was a bit taken aback, but shook his hand nonetheless. "Pe- I mean, Spider-Man."

Natasha gave the Lizard a last kick into its stomach, making it stumble back, and then came back to us. "You two stay here and take care of that thing." She said and pointed at the two males. "We are going to get out of here." And with that she grabbed my hand and dragged me away."

Police sirens could be heard.

"Uh oh!" Peter mocked "Someone's been a bad lizard!"

That was the last thing I heard.

oOoOoOo

_"Hey."_

_"Where are you?"_

_"I'm fine. I'm okay. I'm down the sewer, I'm tracking him. I gotta stop him before anyone gets hurt, but we need antidote. Do you know how to run a serum?"_

_"Yeah, I do it at OsCorp all the time."_

_"Okay. Great. Great. Great. Okay. Listen, I need you to OsCorp, I need you to access the cross-species file. It's a blue serum, vile 1-2-3-8-9."_

_"Okay, got it. On my way."_

oOoOoOo

_"Nat, it's me, Clint."_

_"Yeah?"_

_"Listen, the Lizard got away. And I lost track of Spider-Man. We underestimated him."_

_"That's okay."_

_"Is Jackie still with you?"_

_"She is. We're in the SHIELD headquarter right now. Apparently Spider-Man took her folder with the files for joining SHIELD."_

_"Well, that's a problem. Wait, so she finally decided to join?"_

_"... Not really a final decision. But Jackie needs it back._

_"Then Jackie had to get it back on her own. If she wants to be a SHIELD agent she should at least be able to do that."_

_"I agree. But she will need help and guidance."_

_"I'll leave that to you."_

_"Got it."_


	14. Chapter 14

**Huzzah, an update :D **

**Enjoy, for I need to study for chemistry exam. Stereoisomeri, diasteroemere, Fischer-Projection, Polysaccharide AAAAAH WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE STUFF _ **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker.**

**Note that writing fighting scenes is soooo not my thing xD**

* * *

Chapter XIV

"_I spent my life as a scientist trying to create a world without weakness, without outcasts. I sought to create a stronger human being, but there's no such thing. Human beings are weak, pathetic, feeble minded creatures. Why be human at all when we can be so much more? Faster, stronger, smarter! This is my gift to you."_

Curtis Connors recording himself for his personal research diary. Test subject: Himself. Tested serum: Cross-species genetic, lizard. Sanity: Someone please call the people from the nuthouse to get him.

Natasha replayed the whole video again while I just sat there, pondering about the things that he said.

To be honest, that speech kind of reminded me a bit of Loki. You know, the whole 'human beings are weak and pathetic and I'm so much better than they, so I will gift you with something special'. Guess both are corrupted by having too much power.

"How did SHIELD come across this video? It doesn't look like something you can find on YouTube." I said.

Natasha closed the window and explained: "SHIELD located the current hide out from Dr. Connors and sent an agent to investigate this place. He didn't have much time to go through everything though, but at least he managed to download this video."

I nodded and then bit my lower lip. I know that the Black Widow just talked to Hawkeye on the phone, and he somehow lost Peter out of his sight. Which I consider as really funny, since Barton has got this super good eye sight and yet he lost someone… The Lizard disappeared too, I don't know to where though. And now I'm worried about Peter.

"Didn't you have school today?" Natasha asked and crossed her arms.

"Uh yeah," I replied somewhat ashamed "I overslept and well, didn't feel like going to school anyway…"

She gave me disapproving look and then grabbed into her pocket. Taking out a medium sized vial with a blue serum, she threw it toward me. Luckily I managed to catch it before it could crash on the floor. I hold up the vial, turn it around a few times and then asked: "What's that?"

"It's an antidote."

My eyes widened. "For that Tesseract thing in my blood?"

"No. It's the antidote for the lizard gene in Dr. Connors body."

Oh man. And here I thought they found a cure for me. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Bring it to Peter Parker." The Black Widow replied curtly.

"Now?" I carefully asked.

"Better now than never. Plus you have to get your papers back anyway."

She's got a point there. But I don't really want to go after Peter, now the Lizard is attacking New York City. Also I kind of feel like a stalker. I'm not even sure it I want to make things up with Peter anymore, knowing that he's together with Gwen now and all that jazz… I don't think my heart can handle this much,

Natasha put a hand on my shoulder, leading me to the doorway. "Let's go now."

I gripped the vial with the antidote firmly, took a deep breath and nodded my head, signalizing that I'm ready to go.

oOoOoOo

"_The lizard's headed toward Canal Street Station."_

"_What about Spider-Man?"_

"_He's inside the High School."_

"_I want that Spider-Man off the street."_

oOo

"_The lizard creature has released a biological agent. All efforts at stopping him have failed and he is now proceeding north on 7__th__ Avenue."_

oOoOoOo

You know those moments in movies, when the good guy figured out the evil plan of the bad guy, and then prepare themselves with guns and stuff, and then walk cooly to their car, get in and then drive in super speed toward their destination?

That's how I felt at the beginning. But then after fifteen minutes driving we got stuck in a traffic. I'm sure that we've been standing in the same spot for good twenty minutes now. Which really sucks for our current situation now. I was sitting nervously in my seat, while Natasha looked pretty calm. But maybe that's just a part of her job. Appearing and staying calm the whole time, no matter if it's an alien army destroying the whole city or a lizard running amok. Me on the other hand am already losing my patience.

"Can't you, like, put on the siren so we can get through this traffic easier?" I asked annoyed.

"I would, but I'm not allowed. It's an undercover thing."

Undercover my ass. Fuck you SHIELD, for being useless in emergency cases. At this rate, the world is going to end before you can evens say puny God.

"Okay, we're going have to improvise here." Natasha suddenly announced and took out her cell phone "I'll call for a helicopter, meanwhile you go and run to the OsCorp building."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why the OsCorps building?"

"In the video, Connors said something about a gift for the humans. I fear that it has got to do something with the serum he developed. All the research data are there, and that's the only leading clue we have for now."

"Uh okay…" Not really understanding her explanation, I undid the seatbelt and got out of the car.

"And take this with you." Natasha handed me a small pocket knife with the SHIELD logo on it "You might need it."

I stuffed the pocket knife into my jeans pocket and looked ahead of me. The OsCorp building was a tall tower. I think if you'd stand on the roof top, you may have a beautiful view over the city. Okay, if I sprint now, I may reach the tower in like thirty minutes.

Taking a deep breath, I jogged out of the traffic zone to the walking pavement and started to sprint to the OsCorp building.

oOoOoOo

"_Hey, where are you?"_

"_I'm in OsCorp."_

"_You have to get out of there right now, okay?"_

"_The antidote is cooking."_

"_No, no, no! Connors is on the way. He's coming to your right now. He means to disperse them with the device, he's gonna infect the whole city!"_

"_There's eight minutes left."_

"_You're gonna wait there for eight minutes after what I just told you? People are gonna die! You leave right now! Listen, that is an order! Okay?"_

"_I'm gonna get everybody out."_

"_Did you hear what…? … Gwen! Gwen? You mother hubbard! Are you serious?!"_

oOoOoOo

Canal Street Station.

And boy, it's a huge mess here. Cars half destroyed and people lying on the street, looking half dead and somewhat… Green. I couldn't really see what the green things were, so I took a closer look.

I wish I hadn't.

Seeing as their faces were half covered in lizard skin, I let out a shriek and clamped my hand over my nose and mouth. Not sure how the hell it happened, but I have the feeling that the substance is in the air, so I think at least by covering my mouth I won't get infected too.

I started to panic more and more. Okay, so why the fuck do I actually have to bring the antidote to Peter again? I mean, I'm a teenager with zero fighting experience, for Odin's sake! Couldn't SHIELD send out a professionally agent to do that? No, of course not because they have to stay undercover.

Tch, secret government organization.

When I was sure that I was out of the danger zone, I quickly took a deep breath of air and let myself sack down to the ground. Damn, it's the first time in my life I have ran this fast. And this much. And I'm totally out of breath now.

Leaning against a street lamp, I ignored the weird look people were giving me as they passed by. After few minutes, my breathing started to get even, and I looked ahead of me. OsCopr building wasn't that far away anymore.

Yay.

I stood up and dusted myself off. While doing that I also touched my face to see if it was covered in lizard skin or not. I couldn't feel anything, but just to make sure, I looked into the reflecting shop mirror. Still the same old me. Good.

I started sprinting again. But then I stopped and carefully listened. It sounded like something loud was coming to my way. I lifted up my head and looked around, searching for the source of this noise.

A helicopter came into my sight. It lowered itself down. Clint Barton stood on the door and attached a rope on himself and got out of the helicopter.

"Come Jackie, there's no time to waste." He said to me.

I nodded and took his hand to get into the helicopter.

oOoOoOo

"_Freeze! Down on the ground! Put your hands behind your head! Now! … Parker!"_

"_It's headed to OsCorp, and your daughter's there right now. You gotta let me go."_

"_Hold your fire!"_

oOo

"_Dad! I have got to get this to Spider-Man!"_

"_Get in the car, let's go."_

"_No! No, no, no! I can stop the lizard!"_

"_Get in the car."_

"_You don't understand!"_

"_I do. Your boyfriend is a man of many masks, I get it. Give me this. Get in the car."_

"_Please make sure he's okay."_

oOoOoOo

"There, I can see them!" I shouted as I looked out of the window and pointed at Spider-Man and the Lizard fighting on the roof of the OsCorp building.

"Tasha, there is something attached to the mast." Clint said and prepared an arrow.

I squeezed my eyes together to get a better look at what it was. All I could make out was a machine and that it contained a green serum. "Is that weirs green stuff the lizard serum?" I asked.

"Yes it is." Natasha confirmed, while piloting the helicopter "It's a machine that sets the serum into the air all over New York City."

… Well, that's not good at all.

"And then all the people will be infected and turn into a lizard-human species." I stated, thinking back to Canal Street Station and all the people there "We have to stop it!"

"I'm working on it!" Clint announced and stretched the string of his bow, aiming for the machine.

He looked very concentrated and I watched in awe as he did his job, when suddenly I remembered something.

"Wait, don't shoot!" I screamed out and grabbed his right arm, to prevent him from letting go of the arrow.

Hawkeye looked annoyed, so I explained: "There are already infected people. We need to put the antidote in the machine so they can be healed!" I hold up the vial with the blue serum.

Barton thought for a few seconds and then nodded, putting his bow and arrow away, and then pointed at the outside. "Still we need to help them."

I looked out and saw how the Lizard first smashed Peter's web shooting device away, then ripped of his mask and finally tried to strangle him.

I shrieked: "Peter!"

That got their attention. Both of them looked up. Peter was surprised to see me in the helicopter. The Lizard also looked a bit surprised. Spider-Man took the chance of this small distraction to free himself from the Lizard's claw. It of course didn't like the fact that its prey escaped, so Connors started to chase after Peter, but also mocked him at the same time. "Poor Peter Parker. No mother. No father. No uncle. All alone."

Ouch, that was mean.

But then out of nowhere Captain Stay appeared with a shotgun. He cocked it and said: "He's not alone."

I saw how Clint stretched his fingers. "You know, if you really want to shoot something, now is the best time."

Barton let a small smirk pass over his feature, and then in a speed I didn't know was possible he had his bow and arrow ready and began to shoot at the Lizard.

The arrow hit its tail. The reptile stopped the chase after Peter for a few seconds and let out a growl. The arrow exploded, leaving the Lizard tail-less. Sadly it only lasted for a while, because the tail grew back again.

Ew ew ew.

Unfortunately for us Clint's explosive arrow provoked the Lizard. It ripped some part of the building out and threw it at us. Lucky for us Natasha is a good pilot and therefore managed to elegantly dodge the thing. Unlucky for me is that I have a very untrained balance, so naturally I fell off the helicopter.

I screamed and desperately tried to grab something to hold on, but didn't get anything. A sudden flashback came into my mind, that time on the airship after Loki's glorious appearance in Stuttgart. Bastard threw me out of the jet, but Tony was there to save me that time. Mentally preparing myself for a a heavy impact onto the rooftop and eventually to a grave injury, I didn't expect to land into someone's arm.

"I got you!" Someone said.

I opened my eyes and saw Peter's face. He looked relieved and quickly set me down to the ground. Captain Stacy was standing next to me, aiming his shotgun at the Lizard.

"You stay behind me." He commanded. Surely he meant me, since I'm the most useless one here right now.

Peter already jumped back into the fight with the Lizard. Arrows were flying down from above, distracting the Lizard once in a while.

"Hey, gift from Gwen!" Captain Stacy shouted to Peter and threw something at him. I recognized it as the antidote, the same I have in my hands right now. He said it's a gift from Gwen, so I guess Gwen made it. I must say, I am impressed.

"I got this, Peter. Go!" The Captain ordered and cocked his shotgun again. But before he could even shoot the Lizard appeared right in front of him and scratched Captain Stacy with its claws.

"No!" Me and Peter yelled, as Mr. Stacy fell to the ground.

Dr. Connors then looked at me with a sadistic smirk. I gripped the vial with the antidote and quickly smashed it into the Lizard's face. It screamed and clutched its face, stumbled a few steps back, hitting something here and there and then sunk to its knees.

Not having the time to care about what's going to happen next, I got hold of Captain Stacy and dragged him to a wall so he could lean against it. He looked very pale, losing a lot of blood.

"C'mon Captain, you can't die now." I pleaded. Meanwhile something blue exploded over the city.

Captain Stacy looked at me with tired eyes. "You're that girl… From that day, when Captain America visited us at the police station…" He recognized me.

"Yeah, that's me. Jackie Walker." I replied, and then searched my mind to find something to say, anything. I felt like keep talking and would at least make him stay awake.

"You're associated with lots of great people." Captain Stacy said, and nodded toward the helicopter, meaning Natasha and Clint, and probably Peter. "But association with great people also will often get you hurt, won't it?"

I nodded. Partly true, but most of the time it's actually my own fault to get into trouble.

The captain of the police department slowly reached for Peter's mask, and hand it to me. "I want you to tell Peter what I just told you… I was wrong. This city needs him. But… He has to make sure the people closest to him are safe… Please let him know that… And tell Gwen I'm sorry…"

He leaned his head back. I started to panic. "No, no, you can't die! Stay alive Captain, and you can tell Peter everything by yourself! Please!"

Captain Stacy closed his eyes and didn't respond.

He was dead.

A tear escaped from my eyes. It's the second time someone died in my presence, and in both situations I couldn't do anything.

I whipped the tears off with Spider-Man's mask, stood up and turned around. Peter was standing there, bruised and scratched, crying. Not needing to say anything, I knew he just heard the whole conversation.

"He wants me to stay away from Gwen, doesn't he?" Peter asked, although it was more a statement.

I nodded solemnly. Captain Stay didn't say that directly, but basically that was what he wanted me to tell Peter.

Peter pressed his lips into a thin line, letting his emotion dominating him. I cried with him. From a selfish point of view, I have the feeling that after this event my friendship with Peter will never be really restored again. And that thought simply made me cry.

The helicopter landed on the rooftop and Natasha got out of it. Clint was the one piloting the helicopter now.

"Let's go." She said gently and grabbed my arm to lead me away.

But before, Natasha turned to Peter. "The police will be here soon, it's better Spider-Man goes now, Peter Parker. If you have any question, then feel free to come and visit SHIELD on the Helicarrier."

He nodded and then walked away.

We got back onto the helicopter and flew away, heading for the Helicarrier.

My hands were still gripping Spider-Man's mask.

oOoOoOo

"_An eerie calm has set in over New York City. Apparently some sort of aerosolized antidote was launched from OsCorp Tower, which seems to have counteracted the biotoxin. Residents of lower Manhattan can rest peacefully, knowing that the alleged mastermind of this terror plot, Dr. Curtis Connors is behind bars."_

oOo

"_Sweetheart. It's okay. It's alright. It's alright."_

"_Rough night."_

"_It's gonna be alright."_

oOoOoOo

A doctor with a slight anger issue.

And a worried and slightly pissed off super soldier.

Both of them weren't happy to see me back from newest adventure. Ah well, at least I came back in one piece.

Right now I'm being bombarded with questions from Steve, which I meekly answer with a 'later, Steve. Later'.

After getting back to the Helicarrier, I was immediately swept off to the med-bay to get checked up. Since I ran through a zone where the lizard serum was let out, Bruce wanted to make sure I didn't have any lizard gene in my body now. At the same it's a check for the amount of Tesseract in my blood.

"Captain Stacy is dead." I finally said after Steve's never ending rambling. Honestly, I never even thought once that Steve would be the kind of person to ramble useless stuff when worried to death.

Steve stopped talking and looked shocked and sad. "He was a great man."

I nodded in agreement. First Coulson, now Stacy. Both great men, bravely trying to save them human race.

There was a silence between us now. Bruce then came back with the test results.

"Good new, Jackie." Bruce announced and offered me a smile "You didn't get infected by the cross-species serum, and the amount of Tesseract in your blood shrunk down a bit."

Hearing that I leaped off from my seat and looked at Bruce with wide eyes. "Really?" I asked, not believing what I just heard.

To proof that he was telling the truth, Dr. Banner handed me the paper with the test result from now and few months back.

"And that's not all. I also found out something rather interesting, but for now it's still a hypothesis." Bruce mentioned "Maybe you should sit down again. And if you want, Steve can hear it too, but that's up to you."

I looked at Steve, who gave me a raised eyebrow. I gave him a nod, and he sat down too.

Bruce started to explain: "Remember when you were in Stuttgart and Loki tried to blast some form of energy at you?"

I let out a snort. How could I not forget that? That's basically the thing that piped up the God of Mischief's interest.

"And Loki said that it was because of the Tesseract in your blood was protecting you, right?" Bruce continued. Steve gave me a weird look, probably hearing that for the first time.

"Mhm."

"And then there was the Chitauri invasion, but none of them attacked you."

"I think it was because I was radiating off Tesseract energy."

"Right. And today, when you ran though the Canal Street Station, you got out of it safe and sound, without any sign of changing. Since the substance was released into the air, normally a person would instantly get infected and change into a lizard."

I quickly interrupted him. "But I didn't."

This time, Steve spoke up: "Is it because of the Tesseract energy inside her?"

"Exactly, Captain Rogers." Bruce said.

Slowly I began to understand where he was getting at. "Basically, you're saying that every time in a dangerous situation, the Tesseract is going to act as a shield, protecting me?"

"That's my hypothesis." He confirmed.

I pressed my lips into a thin line, pondering about whether this is a good thing or not. Good because well, I'm protected against evil forces for most time. Bad because this whole concept scares me.

"Alright, time to go home now." Steve said and got up. I did the same, said goodbye to Banner and followed Captain America to the jet that's supposed to take us home.

Already planning out in my head what I was going to do when I get back, I stuffed my hands into my jeans pocket. I forgot that I still had the mask until I touched the fabric and suddenly all the things that happened rushed back into my mind. Captain Stacy's last wish and Peter's face. This whole scene just made me realize how much Peter loves Gwen and how happy he was with her before her father died.

Something I could never make him feel.

I gripped the mask and got into the airship.


	15. Chapter 15

**ASDFGHJKL JESUS GUYS CAN YOU BELIEVE IT; IT'S ALREADY THE LAST CHAPTER**

**I have all those feelings inside me, one hand glad that I managed to finish another story, on the other hand sad because it's over :(**

**anyway, ENJOY THE LAST CHAPTER WHILE IT LASTS**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC Jackie Walker**

* * *

Chapter XV

"_Where have you been?"_

"_I…"_

"_My father died. There was a funeral. They shot off rifles and they made speeches. Two of my teachers showed up, and Flash showed up. Everyone was there but you."_

"_I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm sorry."_

"_What are you saying?"_

"_I can't see you anymore. I can't!"_

"_He made you promise, didn't he? To stay away from me? So I'd be safe."_

oOo

"_What a pretty girl."_

"_Yeah."_

"_Did you ask her out?"_

"_No, I didn't."_

"_Why?"_

"_I'm just no good for her."_

"_Peter Parker, if there's one thing you are, it's good. Anyone has a problem with that can talk to me."_

oOoOoOo

"That makes fifty dollars, Miss. Would you like me to wrap it up for you?"

I nodded and paid the price. The cashier started to wrap the flower bouquet in a transparent paper, and secured it with a blue gift ribbon. He then handed it to me.

"Here you go. Have a nice day!"

I stepped out of the flower shop and put on the hood from my hoodie on. It has been raining for a couple of days already. I didn't feel like bringing an umbrella with me. With a giant flower bouquet in one arm, I put on my headphones. _Missing You_ from the Kingdom Hearts II Original Soundtrack was playing.

How fitting.

I walked down the pavement, avoiding people here and there, heading for a certain destination. The graveyard. I'm planning to visit someone's grave. Actually I wanted to do that a long time ago, but never really found the courage to do that.

On my way I bumped into someone I thought I was never ever going to see again.

Gwen Stacy.

She was just as surprised to see me.

"Jackie!" She greeted.

"Hey Gwen. Long time no see." I said and offered her a sad smile.

Gwen looked at me concerned from head to toe. "You're soaking wet!"

I shrugged my shoulder. "It's okay. I prefer to walk without an umbrella in the rain.

She gave me a weird look but didn't comment on it. Then her eyes wandered to the giant flower bouquet I was holding, and raised an eyebrow.

I explained: "It's for a grave visit."

"I'm actually heading that way too." Gwen said and put her umbrella over my head so I was shielded from the rain "We can walk there together."

I gave her a thankful smile, but inside I was feeling guilty.

The first three minutes none of us said anything. To be honest, there wasn't really anything to talk about. Not sure if she knows that I was there when her father died. Does anyone except some people know I was there?

"… How's Peter been lately?" Gwen finally dared to ask.

I furrowed my brows at that question, wondering why she would ask me that, but then I remembered why. Looks like Peter really is keeping his distance from her.

I decided to be honest with her and replied: "I… Don't know. I haven't really talked to Peter for a long time. We had a fight, you know… And we never really made up again..." Well, save for that one time where he appeared in front of my kitchen window injured. But my instinct tells me it's better not to tell her that.

Gwen nodded at what I said.

We reached the graveyard. I followed Gwen to her father's grave, because I felt like I should pay him a visit too. The grave was clean, the candles were lighted up and fresh flowers were lying there.

Someone was here before. And judging from Gwen's look, she doesn't who it could have been.

I picked out a white lily from the flower bouquet and placed it on Captain Stacy's grave.

"You know," Gwen started "it's really weird how life changes so suddenly. One minute you're just a normal high school student and the next you find yourself in a huge mess… And before you know what exactly happened you lose someone very dear to you."

"Yeah, I know how that feels…" I agreed with her. Although at this point I have to say that I went through a lot more than her.

"I miss him… And I miss Peter." Gwen chocked out.

Moments like this I wish I know what to say. But unfortunately I can't find the right words, so I kept my mouth shut and stared at the grave.

"… I miss Peter too." I finally confessed in a small voice, and stared into the sky. Gwen stayed silent.

We stayed there for another ten minutes and then Gwen had to leave.

I let out a sigh and shivered bit from the cold. Hopefully I'm not going to be sick tomorrow. Bruce would kill me if he knows I've been walking in the rain without an umbrella. Clutching the flower bouquet, I started to search for a certain someone's grave. It took me some time but at the end I found it.

Phil Coulson's grave was somewhere in a small corner of the graveyard. I actually find that place good. Right in front of Coulson's grave grew a big old tree. It was so big that is covered his grave, like it was protecting it. I kneeled down and took out some matches and lit up the candles. Then I put the flower bouquet on the grave and sat down in front of it. I'm already soaked wet, so I didn't mind to sat on the wet ground.

"Hey Coulson, it's me." I said and put my arms around my knees. Personally I felt a bit stupid to talk to a grave now, but somehow I had to let out all the things that has been building up inside me from the last past months. It seemed like to me that Coulson's grave was the best option.

"So uhm… I finally took out my whole courage to visit you…" I began awkwardly "Loki is back in Asgard, and the Tesseract is there too. Basically, the Avengers won and yeah, we're safe. I really hope you're not mad at me for giving Loki a hug… Bastard really needed one."

Why am I talking about Loki now?

Shrugging off that thought, I continued with my tale. I told him about the Chitauri invasion in Manhattan and that Steve is my neighbor now. I told him about his relationship with that Maggie McCartney and about my current condition with the Tesseract energy inside me. Then I process to tell him about Peter: How I met him, how I knew he was going to be Spider-Man and how I kept all those stuff from him and about our fight and all my regrets that I wasn't honest with him from the very beginning.

After letting all these feelings about I felt a lot more better. I didn't want to leave yet, so I stayed there where I was and let my head rest on my knees. I listened to the raindrops plashing on the ground. Footsteps could be heard too, but I dismissed it with the thought that I was simply another grave visitor.

It wasn't until the footsteps came toward me and suddenly I found myself being shielded from the rain. Confused about who it could be I lifted up my head.

"Peter!" I said in surprise and quickly stood up.

He was holding an umbrella over us, and gave me a sheepish smile. "Hey."

I looked at him from head to toe, and realized that he was soaking wet too, even though he's got an umbrella with him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, but mentally slapped myself. It's a graveyard, what do people normally do here?

"I uh, visited Captain Stacy's grave, brought flowers and stuff…" He stammered out.

I remembered Gwen's confused look and then widened my eyes. Peter was here before us, but he's still here, so that means… He basically hears everything. Every single thing Gwen and I talked about, and every single thing I told Coulson.

I felt how my face started to heat up a bit. Okay Jackie, no need to panic, just play it off cool.

Easier said than done.

Awkward silence.

I took a deep breath and informed Peter: "I think I'll go now…"

I was good five steps away when he called me back. "Wait, Jackie!"

I turned around and raised an eyebrow.

He explained: "You have my mask." Oh right, hehe "I'd like to uh, have it back."

"And you have some really important documents of mine, I'd like to have them back too." I countered, suddenly remembering them. Almost forgot about them, since Fury stopped bugging me about joining SHIELD. But I fear this is only temporary.

"I have them here." Peter pointed at his backpack "But first, I want to talk to you. And then you'll get them back."

I pressed my lips into a thin line and thought about his proposal. Hm, why not, what harm could it do?

I agreed to this deal. "Alright. But let me go home and get change first."

Peter nodded and then jumped onto the wall to get to the other side, instead of just using the entry. Before disappearing, he turned back again and asked: "Usual place, usual time?"

Hearing those familiar words I couldn't fight back the smile that was threatening to appear on my face.

"Usual place, usual time."

oOo

"_Peter, I know things have been difficult lately. And I'm sorry about that. I think I know what you're feeling. Ever since you were a little boy, you've been living with so many unresolved things. Well, take it from old man, those things send us down a road, they make us who we are. And if anyone's destined for greatness, it's you, son. You owe the world your gifts. You just have to figure out how to use them, and know that where they take you, we'll always be here. So, come on home, Peter. You're my hero, and I love you."_

We sat there for a long time, after hearing the voice mail from Uncle Ben. No one said anything, still processing the message.

"So…" I started carefully and stretched out my legs "What did you want to talk about?" Truthfully I already know what Peter wanted to talk about, but I just felt like I should ask anyway.

Peter opened his mouth, but then closed it again, searching for the right words. "… How's Gwen?" He finally asked.

I frowned at that question. Seriously, both of them keep asking how the others are. Can't they like, ask it by themselves? "Do you want an honest answer?" I asked back instead.

Peter chewed on his lips, shrugged his shoulders and then nodded.

"Shitty." Was my one word anwer. Still it made him flinch visibly. "She's suffering, because her father is dead and well, you're keeping distance from her after all what happened."

"It's because I promised her father-"

"The word 'promise' wasn't even mentioned once." I cut him off "Dude, don't change the story, I was there. If you ask me, it was simply a warning, a request or his last wish."

I honestly don't know why I'm trying to get his relationship with Gwen back on its feet. It's not really my concern whether they are still together or now. But maybe it's because that somewhere deep inside me, I know that it's the right thing to do, and I should just forget my feelings for Peter. We're simply not meant to be.

Peter thought about what I said, but didn't voice about his opinion. Instead he reached for his backpack and took out the SHIELD folder, and handed it to me.

I wanted to take it, but then he quickly put it out of my reach with a small teasing smirk on his face. I furrowed my brows, not finding this situation funny at all.

"So, are you really from another dimension, where all the super heroes including me are comic and movie characters?" Peter asked.

I stared at him, needing some time to process the things he just said. And then I got it. One if the things I had to fill out for joining SHIELD was explaining how I came across this organization, and well, I simply wrote down the whole story. Spandex-boy probably read through everything.

"Uhm yeah, kinda. It's complicated." I stuttered out, scared of his reaction.

Peter pressed the subject further. "And you're really not just making things up as an excuse?"

I shook my head and gave him an annoyed look.

He sighed and leaned back a bit. "Well, at least it explains why you were somewhat a know-it-all. You could have told me that from the beginning, it would have saved a lot of stress."

"Uh huh, like you were going to believe me." I replied sarcastically.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe I would have." And finally he gave me the folder back.

I open it carefully to see if everything was still in order. The last page was the unsigned contract. Just a signature from me and Fury, and then my life would change forever.

Not that it already has.

"This SHIELD organization has been keeping track on me, right?" He asked casually, like it was no big deal.

"Yeah, probably. And they'll continue doing that." I confirmed.

"I guess you're going to be a secret agent soon huh?" Peter said and pointed at the contract. There was a hint of sadness and disappointment in his voice.

I didn't know why though. And it's not even my final decision yet. I looked at the contract again and thought about all the things that happened, with SHIELD involved in it. It really sounded like a big step into a new life, but something in the back of my mind told me there are far more greater (and worse) things waiting for me, don't let SHIELD restrict your freedom.

A sudden bright flash distracted me. A tall figure with black hair and green cape was standing there. And just as fast as it was there, the flash disappeared. I sat there motionless for a while, with a blank look on my face, until Peter shook me to get me back to Earth.

"Jackie? Jackie!" He snapped his fingers in front of me.

I blinked for a few times, and then stood up. Peter wondered what I was doing. My next action totally took him by surprise: I ripped the SHIELD contract in half, and then in small pieces until I was sure no one could puzzle them back together.

Still half shocked, half amazed, Peter asked: "Why did you do that?"

I casually shrugged my shoulders. "It felt like the right thing to do. And let's face it, we both know that I'm far too lazy to become a secret agent."

Peter smirked brightly, glad that I decided not to join SHIELD I'm actually glad I made that decision too. Now it feels like I'm one burden less. I just have to find a way to tell Fury that. Surely he's not going to take that well, but in emergency case, I'll bring the superparents Tony and Steve with me.

Speaking of them… "I know two people who are just _dying_ to meet you." I said with a huge grin on my face to Peter.

He looked at me with a curios look. "Really? Who?"

"Tony Stark and Steve Rogers."

Hearing those names he opened his eyes widely, not believing what he just heard. "Tony Stark? _The_ Tony Stark? Wants to meet _me_? But why?"

Because I'm trying to bring the superfamily together. Pure selfish fangirl reason.

Trying to suppress my immature fangirl giggle I simply walked away happily and said: "Try to fix things up with Gwen. She misses you and she needs you!"

"Will do!" Peter yelled back and then rolled away on his skateboard.

I watched him disappearing out of my sight.

Now I know how it feels like to be heartbroken. You feel angry and jealous toward the girl who can have that special boy, wondering what she's got that you don't have, and you try to hate that special boy and that girl. But at the same time you realize you just can't because of the way he makes you feel and you can't hate her because you know she's going to make him more happy than you ever could. And happiness is something Peter definitely deserves after all what happened.

I single tear ran down my check. It was a sad and a happy tear at the same time. I stopped walking, quickly whipping it off with my sleeve.

Love sucks.

Because it gives you all those roller coaster feelings. You wish you can somehow turn them off but at the same time they make you feel completely happy.

Someday, I will bump into the right guy who will make me feel this way again, and who will choose to stay by my side.

I looked up at the bright blue sky. It has stopped raining a long time ago. The sun was shining brightly.

Somewhere far away, the right guy is doing the same thing.

oOoOoOo

"_Mr. Parker, tardy again. Well, at least we can always count on you."_

"_Sorry, Miss Ritter. It won't happen again, I promise."_

"_Don't make promises you can't keep, Mr. Parker."_

"_Yeah, but those are the best kind."_

* * *

**haha, remember how I said that I wanted to ship PeterxOC when I started with this story? still turned out to be a GwenxPeter pairing at the end xD**

**so yeah, THANKS A BUNCH TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED THIS STORY; PATIENTLY WAITED FOR AN UPDATE ENCOURAGED ME TO KEEP WRITING; ALERTED ND FAVED THIS STORY.**

**Really, you guys rock. Without you, I wouldn't have come this far. It really means a lot to me, since I've never really thought I write fanfictions xD**

**There isn't going to be an official sequel soon until I've seen Iron Man 3. Let's see if it's good to smuggle Jackie into that movie :P **

**And because I like to mess with the feelings of my readers, I have a small 'drabble' you :3 **

**It's a small experiment. I wanted to try to write in third point of view. It's not really crucial part for this story, but you can see it as one if you want ;D**

**Enjoy!**

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Somewhere on the top of the life tree Yggrdasil lies the city of the Aesir and the Gods, Asgard.

Even though Asgard was also known as the shining golden city, in the last few days, it seemed like the city has lost its shine a little bit. Most Aesir believed this was cause by the rain. It was uncommon for Asgard to be visited by a rain that lasted for so long.

And finally, what seemed like an eternity to the Aesir, it has stopped to rain. The sun was shining even brighter then they remembered, giving Asgard a more powerful and majestic glance.

Loki, God of Mischief, Father of Lies and Harbinger of Destruction, was sitting in his room –now a prison- and stared up at the bright blue sky. It was something he has been doing a lot lately, he realized.

Was he hoping that someday, he may finally be free from this prison and leave this palace, that was his home for so long? Was he longing to be finally able to see the blue sky fully, instead of just a small piece from the window? And then plan revenge to all the people that has done this to him? Loki didn't know the answer himself.

Until today.

When Loki looked up and saw the blue sky for the first time after so many grey days, it made him feel… Safe. He never believed in light, always choosing the path of darkness and destruction. But today, the sky seemed like a light in his cruel cold life, shining its way through his blackened soul, trying to clean up the blood-stained corners.

It felt odd.

Loki turned away from the window and let out a humorless chuckle. For the first time in a while, he let a thin smile pass over his face. It wasn't a cruel smile, nor was it a happy smile. It was a simple, emotionless smile. Maybe the smile wasn't even real, it was simply an illusion- or a lie to cover up what he just thought.

His whole life was a lie.

_You're not a monster._

Loki still remembers those words clearly, being whispered into his ear. Not a monster. Just thinking about it makes him want to laugh out loud. She was a fool, not knowing what she was saying. And yet, something in the back of his mind told him that maybe, just maybe, it was true what she said. He kept thinking back to the time where she told her story, in that prison on his last day on Midgard.

She really was an interesting human.

The God of Mischief looked out of the window again.

The sun was shining brightly.

Loki stared at the blue sky for a long time, and wondered if she was doing the same thing.


End file.
